The Children's Civilisation and Creativity Centre (CCCC), or Children's Museum for short, stands on Abu Bakr Al-Seddik Street in Heliopolis opposite the Haroun Al-Rashid tram station, its white modern architecture and large blue dome welcoming its child visitors. Originally inaugurated in 1996 and covering some 4,000 square metres in a 14-feddan plot, the museum allows children to use all their senses to explore Egypt's various civilisations, environments and natural resources. However, with the development of new educational technology since the museum was first opened there was a need to rethink the institution, transforming it into the CCCC. In 2008 the museum was closed for renovation and was then officially reopened in 2012. The renovation work was carried out by the Heliopolis Society for the Benefit of all the Children of Egypt with contributions from Egyptian and international museums and institutions. The new building was designed by experts from Egypt, the United Kingdom and the USA, advised by museum specialists from across the globe who contributed to the Museum by helping children and young adults to learn through hands-on exhibits, interactive displays, computer games and a spectacular dome exhibit that takes visitors through the history of science in Egypt. In May 2012, the CCCC won the United Kingdom's Museum and Heritage International Award. “The museum's traditional educational role is taking on new dimensions as institutions work harder to engage the public in their collections,” CCCC Director Osama Abdel-Wareth told Al-Ahram Weekly. He said that the growing emphasis on the importance of all kinds of learning in museums was evident through the vast range of programmes and activities that were now available. Such educational potential could be more fully realised with the help of innovative interactive activities and new technologies, he said. The CCCC works to create collaborative activities in which children can learn through hands-on exhibits that take them through the history of Egypt and promote the exchange of ideas and information at national and international levels. According to its director, the CCCC advocates for better educational programmes in museums in the region as a whole and for higher professional standards. Visitors to the museum are welcomed by a spectacular Space Pyramidion, a metal structure of spheres circling a pyramid that represents Egypt's ancient and modern cultures. The visit proper then begins with a journey down the Nile Valley and through time that shows how the Nile has changed and has formed the landscape of modern Egypt. The journey starts at a fountain symbolising the source of the Nile in Nubia, the rocks here being carved with images of the dinosaurs that once roamed in this area in prehistoric times. At the beginning of human settlement in the region, the Nile deposited alluvium silt across the ancient river valley in order to create habitable land beside the river. Crocodiles and hippos, the descendants of the first inhabitants of the Nile, greet visitors to the museum as their journey continues down the Nile's path into the early period of human settlements on the river's banks, at this time occupied by colonies of elephants and giraffes. The journey then passes to another stage when the Nile Valley started to dry out, Egypt becoming savannah grassland and semi-arid desert. Lions, giraffes and gazelles appear along the Nile's banks. The journey continues until visitors reach the Ancient Egyptian period, the land surrounding the Nile Valley by then having become desert. An oasis is on display, as is a desert encampment. Foxes and camels, the wildlife of the period, are also shown. Meanwhile, the Nile's banks are shown as cultivated land, with basins filled with lotus and papyrus containing diverse cultivated species. Crocodiles still lived in the Nile at this time, long after large wild mammals had been hunted out of Egypt. The Nile's path then takes the visitor to the mediaeval period, after showing the development of mechanised water systems in the Roman period. The use of the Archimedes screw, a form of water transport, helped to produce large-scale farming, and it was the agricultural surplus from this that supported the civilisations of Greece, Rome and finally Byzantium and the Arab Empire, these helping to create Egypt's characteristic field system and large canals. With the construction of the Aswan and later the High Dam in the modern period, the Nile became the constant source of water that it is today, and the exhibition focuses on the villages and agricultural communities that have developed over millennia, showing how the food that these produce still helps to feed the Egyptian population. The path then continues to the urban parkland of Heliopolis itself where the new museum building is located. According to Abdel-Wareth, the museum shows the modern Egyptians' aspiration to be a civilised, educated people living in harmony with others, the Nile and the environment. “The museum is an emblem of Egyptian civilisation,” he said, adding that it also presented the three measures of time traditionally used in Egypt — the sun in the form of the shadow clock, water in the form of the water clock, and the stars in the form of the celestial dome that people in the country used to measure their activities for more than 7,000 years. The path leading through the museum ends in the Delta landscape, Alexandria and a covered Roman theatre for outdoor performances. It passes through a shady garden of mature trees that both calms and stimulates the imagination of the visitor in anticipation of entering the new learning area of the museum. The gardens have a living display area of birds, butterflies and fish, as well as an outdoor excavation area. A large cafeteria is also provided, as are outdoor classroom spaces for creative and musical activities. The cinema provides 3D projection facilities, while the museum's bookshop is stocked with educational books. The museum building itself consists of four floors, basement, ground, first and second, each connected to the other by a central spiral staircase known as the “time stairs” that provides a path from the roof to the basement and crosses four themes. The basement floor addresses the theme of “where are you”, in which children can explore Egypt's ancient history through a tour around the Giza Pyramids and a replica of King Tutankhamun's tomb. It also shows visitors the arts and life styles of the ancient Egyptians through photographs and replicas of temples and obelisks. Children learn how the ancient Egyptians used to count, write and read, as well as the instruments they used. The exhibition reminds visitors of how modern generations learnt to understand what they wrote. This section also introduces visitors to how modern technology has helped restore the monuments of the period and how it has helped discover more of its secrets. This is shown through the presentation of a mummy and of underwater archaeology in Alexandria. Children are able to learn more about what archaeology is and how archaeologists work to protect Egypt's heritage and history. They also learn how they can help to protect it themselves. At the end of this floor an open area filled with blocks painted with ancient Egyptian decorations gives children the opportunity to build their own temples, reliefs and stelae. The ground floor is dedicated to the theme of “who are you, child of the Nile”, in which children are able to discover the development of Egyptian civilisation by looking at the flooding, sowing and harvesting of crops in the Nile Valley. Egyptian markets and houses are also shown. The first floor theme is “where are you now”, and this shows the development of modern Egypt through a panorama of Egyptian landscapes and environmental issues, indicating how today's population is helping to make the country a better place to live in. The different kinds of desert in Egypt are shown, as are the country's diverse populations and environments. To reach the second and upper floors of the museum visitors use the time stairs that take them on a journey to the stars. This staircase celebrates mankind's journey of exploration from the past to the present and into the future. In the centre of the display is the earth, with the planets shown around it. Visitors move up and down the double stair and ramp winding through the void, much like humanity's journey back and forwards in time. Finally, the museum's second-floor display takes as its theme the question of “what will the future hold”, this looking at the history of science in Egypt through both a static and a hands-on exhibition that presents stars, ships, astrolabes, telescopes, airplanes and space travel. There is also an immersive “4D experience” dome show, in which the pioneers of science in Egypt reappear to tell the history of science and to encourage the young visitors to participate in it in the future.
