King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years
After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun's iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
'Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,' said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
'All are set to be moved soon,' he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun's treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo's Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building with faded cases, no climate control and ageing infrastructure now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilisation, housing more than 100,000 artefacts with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut's treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh's intact tomb in 1922. AFP
After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun's iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
'Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,' said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
'All are set to be moved soon,' he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun's treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo's Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building with faded cases, no climate control and ageing infrastructure now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilisation, housing more than 100,000 artefacts with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut's treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh's intact tomb in 1922. AFP
After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun's iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
'Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,' said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
'All are set to be moved soon,' he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun's treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo's Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building with faded cases, no climate control and ageing infrastructure now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilisation, housing more than 100,000 artefacts with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut's treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh's intact tomb in 1922. AFP
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King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years
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