CAIRO - After a 25-day closure, Egypt's antiquity sites and museums are reopening today. Some 18 days of protests against the regime of Hosni Mubarak that grew into the January 25 revolution forced their closure. The Supreme Council of Antiquities lost LE70 million ($12.1 million) due to the closure of these sites, according to official estimates. “Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq has approved opening the antiquity sites and museums in all governorates. Tourists can come back and the tourism sector will make profits again,” a hopeful Zahi Hawass, the Minister of State for Monumental Affairs, who supervises the Ministry of Culture, said yesterday. “Policemen have returned to guard the sites,” Hawass declared, after meeting General Seif Eddin Negm, the Cheif of Antiquities and Tourism Police, and other security officials. “We hope that foreign tourists will be visiting Egypt again within one month,” he said. “Around 24 governorates, 150 sites and museums, including the National Museum in Al Tahrir Square and the Valley of Kings in Luxor, are ready to welcome tourists,” Hawass added.
