CAIRO, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is implementing a strategy to turn its museums into green sites using clean energy, an Egyptian official has said.
"There is a plan to use clean energy, such as solar energy, at Egypt's museums to turn them into green ones," Moamen Othman, head of the Museums Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Xinhua in an interview ahead of the 2023 International Museum Day on Thursday, with the theme of Museums, Sustainability and Well-being.
Othman said the plan will start in five museums, including the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum, the Manial Palace Museum in Cairo, the Graeco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, and the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.
"There is an experiment that is being done in the Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria to be a pioneering experience by converting it into a green museum," he said.
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which will be open soon, will be Egypt's first eco-friendly museum, with several services provided to meet the required standards for sustainability in its environmental, economic and cultural dimensions.
Othman said Egypt has 43 archaeological museums, which house about 730,000 displayed or stocked artifacts.
"There are museums that represent a specific type of heritage, such as the Mummification Museum, the Crocodile Museum in Kom Ombo in Aswan ... There are museums that tackle a certain historical era, while there are museums representing archaeological houses, in addition to the museums of the provinces, which contain the cultural output of each province," Othman said.
The official revealed that there is an aspiration to have a museum in every governorate.
"We are working on turning some ancient palaces in some governorates into museums after their restoration and rehabilitation," he said, citing that there is an increasing awareness among the public to establish museums in the governorates that still do not have one.
Othman said that many of the Egyptian museums' staff have been trained in museum institutions outside the country.
"The ministry has paid attention to promoting and marketing recently. Promotion no longer takes the traditional form as it was in the past through advertising companies. We now mainly rely on electronic promotion through social media platforms and internet websites," he said.
Regarding Egypt's ties with China in the field of museums, Othman said there is great cooperation in the antiquities file between the two countries.
He noted that Egypt and China are two countries with great historical depth resulting from a large and diverse heritage of archaeological sites and museums.
"I believe that the opportunity is ripe for cooperation with China in all fields, whether to exchange experiences or establish exhibitions of antiquities from both sides," the official said.
