Egypt to open 2,700 meter Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor before year end and announce new a archaeological discovery in September.
Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Anani said Egypt was supposed to have announced a huge archaeological discovery in May. The upcoming announcement of the archaeological discovery will be bigger than the discovery announced last November in Saqqara.
Before the end of the year, Egypt will also be opening the 2,700-metre-long Avenue of Sphinxes in Luxor, that connects the Karnak and Luxor temples in the east of Luxor. El-Anani noted that the avenue’s opening will be Egypt’s next parade.
He also announced that Egypt will reopen the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria by the end of the year. The museum is one of the biggest and oldest museums devoted to Egypt’s Greco-Roman collection.
El-Anani declared that the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza will also be ready to open by the end of the year.
El-Anani added that determining the date of the opening ceremony will be related to the global health situation, rather than just Egypt, and that it will be chosen according to the most appropriate time for everyone. “There is a difference between the ceremony and the opening, as the ceremony will be huge and attended by Heads of State from around the world, celebrities, and the like,” El-Anani said, adding, “I have had a meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who has given his directives that we have to work very fast for the museum to be ready.”
He added that his ministry will continue moving artifacts to the GEM in preparation for its opening. A total of 95% of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen’s collection has already been moved to its new location in the GEM, a special section devoted entirely to the Boy Pharaoh- the Tut section of the GEM alone is larger than the the entire old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo!
The 5% of Tut's artifacts that remain in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square will be moved to GEM just a few days before the new museum’s official opening.
Al-Anani confirmed that during the next few days, the vaccination of workers in the tourism sector in the governorates of South Sinai and the Red Sea will be done, and the vaccination of tourism sector workers will begin in Cairo, Giza, Luxor and Aswan.
General Supervisor of the Grand Egyptian Museum project and the surrounding area Atef Moftah revealed the first Khufu Solar Ship, located on the southern side of the Pyramid of Cheops, will be transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum in June 2021.
