The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir - also known as the Old Egyptian Museum - will extend its opening hours to from 9am to 7pm, instead of 5pm, starting Friday 21 April.

Meanwhile, the opening hours of the Giza Plateau, which is home to the Great Pyramids of Giza, will be from 7am to 6pm, instead of 5pm, starting May first.

Mostafa Waziry, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, asserted that this decision came to meet the influx of visitors to both the Tahrir museum and Giza Plateau.

All tourist agencies were informed of the new schedule for visiting hours to accordingly change their visiting programmes, Waziry added.

The normal visiting hours of the museum were from 9am to 5pm and in Ramadan was from 9am to 4pm.

Meanwhile, the Giza Plateau opens from 7am to 5pm and during Ramadan from 8am to 4pm.

Egyptians have the duration from 20 to 25 April as a paid holiday for both Eid El-Fitr and Sinai Liberation Day.

Eid El-Fitr is expected to be observed on Saturday in countries that depend on the sighting of the new moon by the naked eye -- in the event no crescent could be sighted on Thursday.