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Located in one of Egypt's most famous squares, the museum has
been the country's principal keeper of antiquities for over a
century, but a bigger museum is under construction.
Officials celebrated the 116th anniversary of its founding and
insisted it will not become obsolete once the Grand Egyptian
Museum opens its doors. Antiquities will be moved to the new
museum, which is expected to partially open next year.
"Our ceremony this evening is to tell the world this museum will
never die," said Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anany.
The old museum will be used to display recent discoveries as
well as antiquities from store rooms, the minister said.
Housing the world's biggest collection of pharaonic antiquities
has been a challenge for the museum building, which was
established in 1902.
Tens of thousands of objects have been sitting in its storerooms
and galleries were often said to be too packed.
The Grand Egyptian Museum will be located near the Pyramids and
Cairo hopes it will help a tourism industry that has suffered
from the turmoil that followed a 2011 uprising.
Highlights of the evening were exhibitions of mummies and the
ornamented coffin covers of pharaonic courtier Yuya and his
noblewoman wife Thuya.
A 20-metre-long papyrus said to be the longest on display in
Egypt was also on show during the ceremony.
(Reporting by Mahmoud Hendi; writing by Hend Kortam; editing by
Lena Masri and Alexandra Hudson)
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