Egypt’s Ambassador to Germany Mohamed Higazy inaugurated Monday a temporary exhibition of ancient Egyptian artifacts in Sarland State west of Germany, Youm7 reported.
The collection, which offers a full spectrum of the ancient Egyptian art and spans several eras of the ancient Egyptian civilization, was loaned to Sarland by the Egyptian museum in Turin.
“Among the celebrated masterpieces of the collection are the the 3,200 year old Papyrus of the Gold Mines which demonstrates a map of mining sites in Nubia and the tombs of Kha who was the chief architect for king Amenhotep III tomb,” Mohamed Shoukry of the Egyptian Tourism Promotion Authority told The Cairo Post.
Present at the inauguration ceremony were Sarland’s Minister of Culture, director of the Egyptian museum in Turin, director of the Institute of Egyptology at the University of Vienna along with an array of several archaeologists and Egyptologists from all over the world, Youm7 reported.
The collection also includes statues of several Pharaohs including Ramses II along with mummies, sarcophagi, scarabs, amulets that date back to several eras of the ancient Egyptian civilization, Shoukry said.
Higazy called on the attendees to support Egypt’s flagging tourism sector through developing promotion campaigns encouraging tourists to TRAVEL TO EGYPT and visit its unrivaled archaeological sites.
Egypt depends on tourism for around 20 percent of its hard currency. The sector’s total INVESTMENTSare valued at $9.8 billion, according to the Ministry of Tourism.
According to the National Accounts Division of the Ministry of Tourism, INCOME from tourism in Egypt for the first quarter of 2014 decreased to $1.3 billion, down 43% from the same period last year.
According to the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation, tourist activity comprises 11.3% of GDP. Figures by the Sub-Accounts Unit of the Ministry of Tourism state there are 3.8 million workers in the tourism sector, 1.7 million of whom are directly employed by the sector and 1.8 million indirectly.
The Egyptian museum in Turin, or Museo delle Antichità Egizie, is the only museum other than the Cairo Museum that is dedicated solely to the Egyptian art and culture with a collection of over 15,000 artifacts excavated in Egypt by the Museum’s archaeological mission between 1900 and 1935 (a period when findings were divided between excavators and Egypt).
The Papyrus of Turin, which includes the names of the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs in chronological order, remains the masterpiece and the most visited artifact of Turin museum.
