The Egyptian Museum in Al-Tahrir is on the preliminary list of World Heritage Sites

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced that the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) included the Egyptian Museum in Al-Tahrir on the preliminary list of World Heritage sites, and that the ministry uploaded its preliminary file last February, in accordance with the established criteria for registering World Heritage sites.

 Counsellor Abdel Mohsen Shafi’i, the General Supervisor of the Central Administration for Public and International Relations at the Ministry, said in a statement today that the ministry, throughout the file it submitted to UNESCO, was keen to highlight the museum’s special status as a cultural beacon in the heart of Cairo and a witness of the Egyptian civilization.

And he explained that the museum is the first national museum in the Middle East region that includes the largest and most important archaeological treasures of the ancient Egyptian civilization, in addition to being a unique landmark that played an important role in educating and spreading archaeological awareness among the various categories of Egyptian society, and it also has a library and an archive that contains rare documents and books in the field of Egyptology. Also, it has a great reputation of being a source of living heritage.

On the other hand, Sabah Abdel Razek, the General Director of the Egyptian Museum in Al-Tahrir, said that the museum building is distinguished by being an exceptional architectural edifice, and one of the early architectural buildings specifically constructed to become a museum, as it is distinguished by its unique design and engineering achievement. It was built by the French architect Marcel Dornon, who designed it following the style of Greco-Roman classicism architecture. After passing an international competition of 87 designs, and laying its cornerstone in 1897, the museum was opened on November 15, 1902 during the reign of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II.