The Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities is the Egyptian government organization which serves to protect and preserve the heritage and ancient history of Egypt. In December 2019 it was merged into the Ministry of Tourism with

Khaled al-Anani Khaled al-Anani ( ar, خالد العناني; born 14 March 1971 in Giza) is an Egyptian Egyptologist and was the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities. Career Al-Anani studied Egyptology at the Helwan University with the aim of becomi ...

retaining his function.

History

It was formed from the

Supreme Council of Antiquities The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) was a department of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture from 1994 to 2011. It was the government body responsible for the conservation, protection and regulation of all antiquities and archaeological excavatio ...

in 2011 during the presidency of Hosni Mubarak to deal with the security and theft of Egyptian antiquities. Grave robbers have been looting ancient Egyptian tombs nearly continuously for well over 4 thousand years. The Ministry of Antiquities works to get the items restored back to Egypt, whenever possible. Over the years, thousands of stolen antiquities have made their way back to Egypt. For instance, in late 2016, the ministry recovered and repatriated two of four Islamic era lamps which had been stolen in 2015. In 2018, a carving in the shape of Osiris which had been hidden in furniture and shipped to Kuwait was repatriated to Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities.

Projects

From 2009 to 2014, the ministry worked with the Getty Conservation Institute on the management and conservation of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Past ministers

* Zahi Hawass 31 January 2011 – 3 March 2011 * Mamdouh Eldamaty from June 2014 *

from 23 March 2016

Duties and goals

In 2016, the minister, Khaled El-Anany, stated his primary focus would be on solving the budget deficit of the ministry, given that many projects were stalled for lack of funding.

References

External links