Moamen Othman, head of the Museums Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that as the anniversary of the opening of the two museums coincides with the celebration of the Museums International Day, visitors will be granted free guided tours and art workshops.

Art workshops will be held at both museums for adults and children to demonstrate how the ancient Egyptians made clay pots to preserve food and perfumes and how they carved engravings and reliefs, Othman said.

Othman added that the museums will gift each visitor a small replica they can colour and keep as a souvenir.

Both museums opened in 2021 for layover and business passengers who do not have time to visit Egypt’s unique museums and archaeological sites.

At Terminal 2, a 100-square-metre museum displays a collection of 304 artefacts showing the different forms of art in Egypt throughout the ancient, Graeco-Roman, Coptic, and Islamic eras.

The artefacts were carefully selected from the storage galleries of the Egyptian Museum and the Coptic and Islamic Museums as well as from the Al-Gawhara Palace Museum at the Cairo Citadel and the Kafr Al-Sheikh Museum.

Museum director Injy Azizi explained that the artefacts are displayed chronologically and thematically. The museum is divided into six themes: kingship, the afterlife in ancient Egypt, arts and sculpture in Graeco-Roman Egypt, Coptic and Islamic art, and Egypt’s modern history.

Wafaa El-Beheiry, director of the Terminal 3 museum, said that it was initially allocated a 60-square-metre area in 2016, but this was later expanded to 150 square metres. Among the museum’s most prominent exhibits are two well-preserved mummies, one of which is from the Roman era and is covered in a gilded mask and decorated with colourful drawings.

The other is from the Late Dynastic Period and depicts a man in the Osiris position, his feet together and his arms crossed at the wrists over the centre of the chest.