Egypt: Kafr El Sheikh Museum to finally welcome visitors
Finishing touches being added to project first conceived 30 years ago
Abu Dhabi: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is racing against time to finish the museum of Kafr El Sheikh, as the archaeologists and restorers of the Supreme Council of Antiquities add the final touches in preparation for its imminent opening, local media reported.
The Kafr El Sheikh National Museum, which is located in Sanaa Park next to Kafr El Sheikh University and stretches over an area of 6,670 metres, will soon open after nearly 30 years since the project began, includingmany years of work and suspension for financial and political reasons.
In preparation for the opening, the museum received during last June a group of huge artifacts from the Tal al-Fara’in area, including statues depicting King Ramses II with the goddess Sekhmet, a progressive painting of King Thutmose III, two stone blocks, and a vertical statue of one of the Dynasty XXX.
Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said: “The museum will display the antiquities discovered in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate, especially the antiquities of Tal Al Faraeen and the city of Bhutto, indicating that the museum exhibit scenario committee is currently working on putting the final touches and selecting the exhibits that the museum will include.”
Kafr El Sheikh Governorate is one of the governorates of the Delta and includes a number of archaeological sites, dating back to several Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras, as it includes more than 50 archaeological hills, and among the most famous monuments of the province is the city of Bhutto, the capital of the Kingdom of the North, before the unification of Egypt, and among its most important monuments are two statues. Of Basalt sphinx, a statue of the god Horus, and a black granite plate from the reign of King Thutmose III.
The city of Sakha includes the Church of the Virgin and has traces of the foot of Christ, and the city of Fuwah, located on the Nile Bank, is famous for making hand-made carpets and includes a group of mosques and archaeological settlements, and Kafr El Sheikh also has a palace of King Farouk, which is currently occupied by the Higher Institute for Social Service.
Waziri explained that the museum exhibition script tells the myth of Isis and Osiris, and the conflict between Horus and Seth, and the visitor can learn about the history of the ancient city of Bhutto, and see monuments that tell the history of science in ancient Egypt, especially medicine, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, engineering, astronomy, agriculture, trade and hunting.
The history of the museum’s establishment dates back to the beginning of the 1990s, when the idea of the museum appeared in 1992, and its implementation began in 1994.
Work in the museum stopped after that more than once for reasons related to lack of financial resources or political turbulence. However, at the beginning of 2018 the Ministry of Antiquities signed a cooperation agreement with the governorate, to complete the museum at an estimated cost of 49 million pounds.
In April 2019, work began to complete the museum project, and it was scheduled to open in the first half of this year, but the repercussions of coronavirus postponed the opening.