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In light of the celebration of International Museum Day, which falls on May 18th each year, Dr. Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, and pilot Mohamed Manar, Minister of Civil Aviation, inaugurated the Cairo International Airport Museum, which is found in Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 at Cairo International Airport. This opening was a continuation of the efforts and effective coordination between the Ministry of Tourism, Antiquities, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and introduced new initiatives and visions to stimulate tourism traffic coming to Egypt, as well as highlight the legacy of its ancient civilization.

The opening ceremony was attended by Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Brigadier General Hisham Samir, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Engineering Affairs, Professor Momen Osman, Head of the Museum Sector at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Ali Omar, Chairman of the High Committee for Museum Presentation Scenario at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Dr. Mahmoud Mabrouk, Advisor to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for Museum Presentation, Professor Bassem Abdul Karim, Assistant Minister of Aviation for International Relations and Information, Major General Tarek Naseer, Minister's Advisor for Security, Engineer Mohamed Saeed Mahrous, Chairman of the Holding Company for Airports and Air Navigation, and Accountant Magdi Yitzhak, chairman of Cairo Air Port Company and a group of leaders from the two ministries.

During the opening ceremony, the two ministers listened to a detailed explanation from the curators about the idea of their creation, where the new airport museum in Terminal 2 displays 304 artifacts on an area of 100 square meters, reflecting the ancient Egyptian's interest in the other world as a place for eternal life, as well as highlighting the artistic features of ancient Egyptian, Roman, Greek, Coptic, Islamic and modern times. The museum also includes pieces highlighting Egypt's being the cradle of heavenly religions that have gathered under its shadow in peace and harmony. The two ministers and their delegation then went to the airport museum in Terminal 3, which has a total area of 150 square meters, instead of 60 square meters.

During the opening, Dr. Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, expressed his happiness at the opening of these two museums, describing them as one of the means of propaganda and promotion of Egypt and its civilization, especially for cultural tourism, the two museums are new attractions and a distinctive service provided within Cairo International Airport for travelers, expats, transit travelers and businessmen who did not have the opportunity to visit Egypt and its tourist and archaeological places to get to know Egypt and its ancient civilization and encourage them to visit it, thus achieving one of the strategic objectives of the ministry's sustainable development plan to raise the competitiveness of Egyptian tourism destinations by promoting the Egyptian tourism destination through conducting Marketing and Tourism promotion activities for the distinctive offerings of the Egyptian market locally and internationally to attract as many tourists from different markets and categories as possible.

The Minister of Tourism and Antiquities thanked the Minister of Civil Aviation for the fruitful cooperation and effort sought over the past year to achieve the dream of the opening of the two museums, as they are an additional service provided by Cairo Airport to its passengers.At the end of the opening, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities announced that the entry to visit the two museums today will be free of charge for all travelers, on the occasion of their opening and the celebration of International Museum Day.

The Minister of Civil Aviation pointed out that the opening of the museums of terminal No. 2 and No. 3 at Cairo International Airport is a new step in addition to the achievements achieved by the Ministry of Aviation through the integration of visions and consolidation of efforts with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in line with the sustainable development goals and Egypt's vision for the future 2030, adding that Egyptian airports are Egypt's first gateway to the world, where the idea of establishing and developing the museum comes from the most important means of development of transit tourism and new tourism promotion due to its distinguishable location within Cairo Airport, which is a central airport and an important cultural window to the world that attracts travelers, especially transit passengers, and introduce tourists to the ancient Egyptian civilization and great Egyptian heritage.

He added that this opening comes as a first step that will be executed in other Egyptian airports, especially those in the Egyptian tourist attractions spots, pointing out that the presence of an archaeological museum in all Egyptian airports is an influential and important factor to attract tourism and the flow of culture and knowledge to benefit the economies of Egypt.

The Terminal 3 Museum houses 59 carefully selected artifacts by the High Committee for Museum Display from the collections of the Stores of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Coptic Museum of Ancient Egypt, the Museum of Islamic Art in Bab al-Khalq, and the Ashmonin Museum. It dates back to the ancient, central, and modern times of the Ancient, Central, and Modern State, and the Roman and Greek periods. Among the most important objects on display is a statue of the Egyptian writer from the fifth family, two pre-dynastic pieces, a collection of statues of the Greek and Roman periods, the statue of Queen Hatshepsut of the modern state, some rare pieces, and Coptic icons from the 18th century, as well as a collection of coins, qur'ans and decorative dishes dating back to different Islamic times.

To encourage travelers to visit these museums, tickets were set at low prices, with a ticket per museum of $3 or LE 50 for a foreign visitor and LE 25 for Egyptian visitors.

Source: The Official page of Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities