Egypt, Germany to complete Aten Museum with $13 million

Egypt signs a bilateral agreement with Germany to finance the completion of the third phase of the Aten Museum in the Upper Egyptian city of Minya with EGP 100 million ($13.1million) to be inaugurated in 2015, Egypt’s minister of antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty said Sunday.

The minister visited today the construction site of the Aten Museum accompanying Ingo Meyer, mayor of the German city of Hildesheim, Regine Schulz, director of the Hildesheim Museum, and Friederike Seyfried, director of the Berlin Museum.

The minister asserted that the ministry has finished the first and second phases of the museum with self-finance estimated at EGP 102 million (US$ 13.3million).

This phase is to include the completion of museum grounds, designed by consultant Mahmoud Mabrouk and to include exhibition spaces and an open air theatre.

He stated that letter of intent (LOI) has been signed in 2013 between Egypt and The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to execute museum’s final phase carried out by Berlin Museum in cooperation with Ministry of Heritage

The minister noted that the new museum would display a large collection related to king Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti, found in the archeological site of Amarna.

This collection includes statues of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, as well as of his father, king Amenhotep III, and his mother Tyie. The exhibition is also to explore Egypt’s relations with its neighbours in the period, through a display of the diplomatic archive from his rule.

Moreover, Al Damaty pointed out that the museum is constructed on the space of 5.000 meters; 2600 meters for restoration school, 500 meters for restaurants in addition to 1.500 for open area, with the height of 52 meter.