Egypt's Tourism Minister Rania Al-Mashat highlighted Egypt's efforts to promote women's empowerment during her visit on Thursday to National Geographic's Queens of Egypt exhibition, on view in Washington D.C. since March till and running till September.

The event was attended by Yasser Reda, Egypt's ambassador to the United States.

The exhibition displays a collection of 300 ancient Egyptian artefacts from five different European and Canadian museums belonging to the 18th and 19th dynasties, including items pertaining to Nefertari, Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, and Cleopatra VII.

The items include monumental statues, jewelry, and sarcophagi.

The exhibition, which runs until September 15, also offers visitors a 3-D tour of a well-preserved tomb in the Valley of the Queens, located in Egypt's historic city of Luxor.

During the visit, Mashat highlighted the significant role women played in Egypt over the centuries, stressing that women empowerment is a top priority of the Egyptian government .

She referred to women's representation in the current Egyptian cabinet which is comprised of eight female ministers, making up a quarter of the total number of ministers for the first time in the country's modern history.

Al-Mashat said Egypt is pressing ahead with a structural reform program of the tourism sector, which aims to keep pace with recent global trends in the industry, promote environment protection, digital transformation and the economic empowerment of women in the tourism sector.

She pointed out that Egypt was the first country to apply the United Nations Development Promgramme's Gender Equality Seal Programme, which aims to close persistent gender gaps in the workplace, in the tourism sector.

As part of her visit to the US, Minister Mashat also took part in a ceremony held at the Egyptian embassy in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the upcoming 67th anniversary of 23 July 1952 revolution.

The event was attended by a number of Egyptian expatriates in the US and around 1,000 Egyptian-Americans.