Cairo - Egypt will start operating its new Sphinx International Airport near the Giza pyramids by mid-July with the aim of easing pressure on Cairo's main airport and boosting tourism, its cabinet said on Wednesday.
The airport near the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, on the outskirts of greater Cairo, is part of plans to improve accessibility to historical sites for visitors, with links to popular Red Sea resorts like Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada.
Tourism receipts, a major source of foreign currency for Egypt, jumped to $3 billion in the past three months of 2021, from $987m a year earlier as travel recovered from the impact of Covid-19 restrictions.
The opening of the new airport comes just after 85 tombs, dating from the period of the Old Kingdom of Egypt about 4 500 years ago until the Ptolemaic dynasty, spanning from 305 BC to 30 BC, were unearthed in the southern province of Sohag.
According to IANS, an Egyptian archaeological mission in the Gabal El Haridi region, about 350km south of the capital Cairo, found 30 death certificates next to the mummies.
The death certificates showed the dead person's name, job and age and their parents' names, written in old Greek letters and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as saying.