Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reopened the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo on Wednesday (January 18th), three years after a car bombing partially destroyed the building, AFP reported.
The museum, which boasts about 100,000 relics including a sword said to have belonged to Prophet Mohammed, holds one of the largest Islamic civilisation collections in the world.
The museum in central Cairo had been partially destroyed after a massive car bomb went off outside nearby police headquarters in January 2014.
The attack was claimed by Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, which later that year changed its name to Wilayat Sinai after pledging allegiance to the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).
The blast damaged 179 relics, including glass lanterns from the era of the Mamluks, who ruled Egypt from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
At the reopening ceremony attended by al-Sisi and aired on television, Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Enany said 160 relics have been restored.
Three new exhibit rooms have been built, with the museum now showing 4,400 relics, from more than 1,450 before the bombing, he said.
Several countries have funded the restoration, including the UAE, which contributed about $8 million, and UNESCO.
