Egypt will reopen historical sites to tourism on Sunday as it seeks to revive a key industry shattered in the turmoil that ousted President Hosni Mubarak.
Archaeologists were cheered by the recovery of the most important artefact stolen from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, a rare statue of King Tut’s father.
A 16-year-old anti-government protester found the statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten next to a rubbish bin and his family returned it, the antiquities ministry said.
But damage to Egypt’s heritage may have been greater than previously thought, as officials reported new cases of break-ins at archaeological sites.
Zahi Hawass, head of the ministry of state for antiquities, had reported a total of 18 missing museum artefacts, three of which were found on the museum grounds, possibly abandoned by looters.
The antiquities ministry cited Sabry Abdel-Aziz, head of its pharaonic sector, as saying the tomb of Hetep-Ka, in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, was broken into and a false door was stolen along with objects stored in the tomb.
Also, a portion of a false door was looted from the tomb of Re-Hotep in Abusir, the ministry said.
Many archaeological storehouses were also targeted in break-ins, including ones in Saqqara, and ministry officials were trying to determine what, if anything, was missing.
The ministry also said the Egyptian military caught thieves attempting to loot the sites of Tell el-Basta, and a tomb in Lischt.
After police and government officials met to discuss security, Hawass announced that “all of the Pharaonic, Coptic, Islamic, and modern sites will reopen to the public” on Sunday, according to a ministry statement.
The pyramids of Giza are already open, but most tourists fled Egypt earlier this month. An outbreak of labour unrest and uncertainty over a military-supervised political transition indicate tourism is unlikely to recover in the short term.
Egyptian officials had said the magnificent legacy of their ancient civilisation emerged largely intact from the chaos in Cairo and elsewhere in the country. The spectacle of civilians forming a human chain to protect the Egyptian Museum testified to a sense of national pride in the past that may have averted more widespread damage.
AP