His collection is the largest collection of artifacts in the Muslim world

lasted seven years, the reconstruction of the world's largest museum of Islamic art at last something completed. It is reported by news agency Reuters. The museum, located in Cairo, will open its doors to visitors in the coming weeks.

Ancient Egyptian buildings such as the pyramids of Giza and the temples of Luxor, are very popular with tourists, and can not be said about Museum of Islamic Art: before closing his attendance was only a few thousand people a month. This is largely due to the fact that the state museum was downright disappointing: there was so crowded that the priceless (a total of about three thousand) almost did not stand each other. Many of them could boast a decent write annotations.

In addition, the walls of the building, designed in the early twentieth-century Italian architect Maneskalo Alfonso (Alfonso Manescalo), adorned with cracks formed under the influence of groundwater tremors. "Our museum was old and required to strengthen the walls, but they would have caved in," - says the director of the institution Mohammed Selim Abbas (Mohammed Abbas Selim).

now in the museum of Islamic art is lighter cleaner and more spacious. Of the 80,000 works of art stored in the collection, Selim and his aides seized 1,7 thousand. Visitors can learn about the various Islamic empires, owning Egypt from the VII century for several centuries. The exhibition shows that the influence of their culture can be traced in the art of the Mediterranean and even Britain.

The museum demonstrates pottery, gravestones, doors, wooden screens, garments, carpets and other artifacts. Among the exhibits - jug found at the grave of the last Caliph dynasty Ummayadov and doors made for the Al-Acar commissioned by the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim.

While the museum was under renovation, it appeared competitor - Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar's capital Doha, which opened in 2008. The architect of the building became a famous IM Pei (I. M. Pei).

Material prepared Yulia Maximova, AI

Sources: artdaily.org , artinvestment.ru