Ahlul Bayt News Agency (ABNA.ir), Egypt is set to reopen the world's largest museum of Islamic art in the capital city of Cairo after a seven-year restoration and refurbishment project.
Designed by Italian architect Alfonso Manescalo, the old building dated to the early 20th century and housed some 3,000 relics including ceramics, tombs, doors, wooden screens, robes and rugs.
The new museum is brighter and cleaner, and there is no sign of the cracks caused by earth tremors on the walls.
"Our museum was old and needed its walls strengthening or it would be at risk of collapse," the museum's general director Mohammed Abbas Selim told Reuters on Wednesday.
The new museum houses 1,700 relics chosen from some 80,000 historical objects by Selim and his team.
A ewer found beside the tomb of Egypt's last Ummayad dynasty caliph and doors commissioned by the Fatimid caliph Al Hakim for the Al Azhar mosque are among the displayed items.
"Unlike the pyramids and other ancient artifacts, Islamic art is a more specialized area," Selim went on to say.
"These are masterpieces that have to be exhibited in a way that everyone can appreciate," he concluded.
source : http://abna.ir
