Egypt unveils Tut’s new home

A giant museum with a glowing alabaster facade and a roof in alignment with the nearby pyramids will house King Tut’s mummy and treasures along with thousands of other artifacts, according to a design unveiled in Egypt this week.

This marked the latest step in the government’s ambitious $500-million project for the Grand Museum of Egypt, which is intended to gather in one spot at the foot of the pyramids some 100,000 artifacts, many of which have been sitting in warehouses for decades with no room to display them.

Egypt is negotiating with the Japanese Bank for International Development for a loan for the project and plans its own fund-raising drive. The $40 million that Egypt hopes to raise from a current tour of King Tutankhamun artifacts in the United Sates will go toward the project. The tour opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last week.

Officials hope to start building on the site later this year and to complete construction by 2009, the Supreme Council for Antiquities said.