Sawt Falasteen - King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

Visitors have just days left to see the boy king's world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.

"Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir," said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.

"All are set to be moved soon," he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.

The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.

Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.

Tutankhamun's treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo's Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.

But the neoclassical building -- with faded cases, no climate control and ageing infrastructure -- now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.

Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilisation, housing more than 100,000 artefacts -- with over half on public display.

In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut's treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh's intact tomb in 1922.

His mummy will remain in its original resting place in Luxor's Valley of the Kings as it is "a vital part of the archeological site", Egyptian officials have said.

A virtual replica, however, will be displayed at the GEM using virtual reality technology.

The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, long the historic heart of Egyptology, has lost in 2021 other star exhibits: 22 royal mummies including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut that were relocated in a widely watched state procession to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo.

Still, it is home to around 170,000 artefacts, according to the museum director, including treasures from Yuya and Thuya - Tutankhamun's ancestors -- and items from ancient Tanis, such as the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope.

A total of 32,000 artefacts have already been relocated from storage and display halls at the Tahrir museum to the GEM.

The museum's director said the space left behind by Tutankhamun's collection will eventually be filled by a new exhibition "on par with the significance of Tut’s treasures".

O.Farraj--SF-PST