Egypt hopes new museum will lure tourists
Print Edition
A chariot and funeral bed belonging to ancient Egypt’s boy-king Tutankhamun were safely moved on Tuesday across Cairo to a new museum that Egypt hopes will lure back wary tourists.
Just beyond the Great Pyramids of Giza in the basement of Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum, which is set to be the world’s largest archaeological museum when it opens in 2018, Egyptian and Japanese restoration experts unpacked the pharaoh’s treasured artefacts from sealed wooden boxes.
Some of the world’s oldest relics, including dozens belonging to King Tut, who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago, are being carefully shuttled from the old Egyptian Museum in central Cairo to the vast halls of the new one 23 kilometers away.
Egypt is hoping the splashy new museum will be a draw for tourism, a crucial pillar of its economy that has struggled since a 2011 political uprising drove away visitors who once flocked to ancient Pharaonic temples and pyramids.
Transporting the artefacts became an issue of international concern in 2014 after the beard of the ancient Egyptian king’s golden burial mask was accidentally broken off by workers changing the lights in its display case.
The workers later tried to crudely reattach the beard with epoxy glue that damaged the mask, prompting outrage among archaeologists.
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