Egypt, Sudan to jointly build museum for Nubian antiquities

Oct 7, 2005 (CAIRO) — Egypt and Sudan will jointly establish a museum for Nubian antiquities in Sudan’s Wadi Halfanear the borders with Egypt, Egypt’s official MENA news agency reported Friday.

It is part of a recently started giant project of cooperation between the two countries in the field of antiquities.

At a press conference at Egypt’s Alexandria Library, Regine Schulz, chairperson of the International Committee of Egyptology at the International Council of Museums (ICOM), announced the start of the project.

The project would be held under the umbrella of ICOM and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Schulz was quoted as saying.

She called on all museologists to extend a hand in sprucing up the dialogue and communication with each other and widening the scale of cooperation worldwide in research and publication.

“With a dialogue between all colleagues we can create an innovative and good project for the benefit of the protection of the heritage, and also as we are museums for all audiences we serve from school kids up to scholars,” she said.

Talking about Nubian museum in Wadi Halfa, Mohamed el-Beyali, director of Upper Egypt’s department of antiquities, said that the establishment of the museum is an important project coming as part of continued cooperation between Cairo and Khartoum in the field of antiquities.

ICOM is an international non-profit organization for museums and museum professionals. It is committed to the conservation, continuation and communication to society of the world’s natural and cultural heritage, present and future, tangible and intangible.

Since its creation in 1946, ICOM has maintained formal relations with UNESCO and has a consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council. It arranges and organizes workshops, publications and training programs for its 21,000 members.

(Xinhua)