Egypt's monuments and museums back in business

Ahram Online (Nevine El-Aref)

Since the 25th January revolution all archaeological sites in Egypt have been closed due to security measures.

Today, following three weeks of closure, they are now open to receive visitors. These include all the Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and modern sites in Cairo, as well as in Lower and Upper Egypt.

According to reports written four hours after the reopening, small groups of between 20 to 50 tourists, including some Egyptians, visited the Giza plateau, Saqqara and Luxor.

Ali El-Asfar head of the Giza plateau monuments said that in the last week the number of tourists who came to the plateau was about 800 people a day and that today a group of young people organised a peaceful protest at the plateau, in support of the return of international tourism to Egypt.

In Luxor Mansour Borak supervisor of antiquities, pointed out that at noon today 93 tourists had visited the Karnak temples and on Wednesday there are scheduled visits for two British groups of 200 people.