Fayyoum governor reviews final preparations for new fossil museum

Fayyoum Governor Wael Makram received Monday Chairman of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency Ahmed Abul Seoud to review the latest preparations for opening a fossil museum.

The meeting took up preparations for welcoming guests at the museum's opening event and distributing tasks on relevant bodies, the governor has said.

The new fossil museum of Wadi Al Hitan “Whale Valley” will display valuable fossil remains of whales and sharks unearthed in the area bearing the same name.

Due to the importance of the site, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had declared it a “World Heritage” property, a strictly protected area.

The globally important fossils of Whale Valley, in the Western Desert, provide dramatic evidence of one of the iconic stories of evolution: The emergence of whales as ocean-going mammals, from their previous life as land-based animals.

The area is occupied by numerous excavation sites of whales, sharks, petrified mangrove bushes and corals, a wide variety of fossil plants and various other remains of the prehistoric sea.