Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Secretary-General Mostafa Amin and Suez Governor Mohamed Abdel Moneim Hashim have agreed to officially launch the new Suez National Museum on 25 January to coincide with the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has reportedly been invited to attend the event.

Following three years of construction work, the LE46-million museum is finally ready to open, said Amin. He explained that the museum, which will house some 3,000 artefacts, will tell the story of the famous canal city from prehistoric times to the modern era.

The museum will display illustrations and maps relating to Suez Canal history from the time of its ancient forerunner, the Senusert Canal, built in the reign of Pharaoh Senusert III (1878-1840 BC) to link the Red Sea to the Mediterranean via the Nile River.

The museum will also highlight the struggle by city residents to liberate Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula from Israeli occupation, which lasted from 1967 until the victory in October 1973. According to Amin, the new museum will serve to compensate city residents for the loss of an earlier museum destroyed in the 1967 war.

The Suez National Museum is a modern, two-storey building located on the bank of the Suez Canal. SCA officials say the museum is part of a wider plan to establish 16 new national museums as cultural and historical centres in major towns and cities throughout Egypt.