The Egyptian Museum, located in the heart of Cairo, celebrates today the 112th anniversary of its establishment.
The Egyptian Museum is the world's first purpose-built museum edifice in the world as at the time in Europe palaces and mansions of kings and princes were converted into museums not built for this specific aim, Museum Director Mahmoud el-Halogy told MENA.
Khedive Ismail laid the building's foundation stone in 1897 and was open later to the public in 1902, he said.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square contains the world's most extensive collection of Pharaonic antiquities.
The Museum boasts 107 halls filled with artifacts dating from the prehistoric through the Roman periods, with the majority of the collection focused on the Pharaonic era. The museum houses approximately 160,000 objects covering 5,000 years of Egypt's past.