Cairo – The Italian Ambassador to Egypt Maurizio Massari, the Environment Minister Khaled Mohamed Fahmy Abdel, and the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Egypt Anita Nirody traveled to Wadi El Hitan yesterday. The three attended the opening ceremony of the Fossils and Climate Change Museum, funded by the Italian Cooperation within the Italo-Egyptian Program on debt conversion. The Museum is backed by a $2 million project in support of Egyptian protected areas carried out by UNDP. The museum, worth 3.5 million Egyptian pounds (about $500.000), replicates the circular profile of a desert dune, and was cleverly constructed using traditional materials that are environmentally friendly. A visitor could easily confuse it with the dunes of the surrounding desert. At the center of the museum there is a fossil skeleton of a giant whale found in the area. The Museum is located in the Wadi El Hitan (meaning Whale Valley), integrated in the protected natural site of Wadi El Rayan in the Fayoum Governorate, one of the most significant fossil sites in the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2005. (9Colonne)
