UN Secretary-General, António Guterres made a tour today of the Grand Egyptian Museum GEM on Tuesday, where he was received by Amabssador Maged Mosleh, International Relations Director at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and Atef Muftah, supervisor of the GEM project. The tour included the construction site of the museum and the general hall, where King Ramses II statue and Tutankhamun belongings are displayed.
The UN Secretary-General also visited the museum's restoration center and wood preservation lab.
Guterres expressed admiration with the great efforts made to restore Egyptian artifacts and keenness on preserving the country's heritage.
The new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is set to be officially inaugurated in 2020, according to Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Anany.
The GEM complex is located on an area of approximately 500,000 square metres adjacent to the Pyramids of Giza. It is one of the largest museums in the world displaying the heritage of a single civilisation.
The construction of the museum began in 2006 with partial funding from the Japanese government; however construction slowed down following the outbreak of the revolution in January 2011.
The museum will contain over 100,000 artefacts, reflecting Egypt's past from prehistory through to the Greek and Roman periods.
The UN Secretary-General started a two day visit to Egypt on Monday.
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN's head visited Al-Azhar headquarters, Egypt's leading institution of Sunni Islamic learning, where he met with Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El Tayyeb.
During the visit, which come less than a month after a terrorist attack on two New Zealand mosques killed 50 worshippers, the UN chief expressed solidarity with Muslims all over the world and denounced hate speech, racism, and anti-Semitism.
