MUSCAT/CAIRO: On behalf of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, HH Sayyid Theyazin bin Haitham al Said, Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, arived in Cairo on Friday to take part in the official opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo on Saturday.
HH Sayyid Theyazin was received by Counselor Mahmoud Fawzy, Minister of Parliamentary, Legal and Political Communication; Abdullah bin Nasser al Rahbi, Ambassador of Oman to Egypt and its Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States; some Egyptian officials; and members of the Omani Embassy in Cairo.
HH Sayyid Theyazin is accompanied by Salim bin Mohammed al Mahrouqi, Minister of Heritage and Tourism; Sayyid Said bin Sultan al Busaidy, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth for Culture; Jamal bin Hassan al Mousawi, Secretary-General of the National Museum; and Abdullah bin Nasser al Rahbi, Ambassador of Oman to Egypt and its Permanent Representative to the Arab League.
With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the GEM houses thousands of artefacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of over $1 billion.
More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates five million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display.
In the run-up to the grand opening, Egyptian media and official statements have hailed the "historic moment", describing the museum as "Egypt's gift to the world" and a "new chapter in the history of Egyptian civilisation".
Starting on Tuesday, the museum will be open to regular visitors who can view 4,500 of about 5,000 funerary objects previously scattered across the country, including at the colonial-era Egyptian Museum in central Cairo.
During a final inspection visit to the site on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said the event reflected Egypt's role "as a cradle of civilisation and a global leader in culture and museum innovation".
The inauguration had been set for July 3, but was postponed when Israel attacked Iran on June 13, sparking a 12-day war that closed airspace across much of the Middle East. — ONA with agency inputs
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