Prime Minister Sherif Ismail approved sending 293 Egyptian artifacts to be displayed the British Museum's exhibit of "Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds" large-scale between May and December 2016.

The artifacts include 22 objects from the Graeco-Roman Museum of Alexandria as well as 12 from the Bibliotheca Alexandria Antiquities Museum.

They also include 209 artifacts from the Qaitbay Maritime Museum, 18 from the Egyptian Museum along with 31 from the Alexandria National Museum.

According to the agreement between Egypt and the British museum, the artifacts will be placed under the supervision of Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities during their journey.

The blockbuster exhibition will feature Egyptian treasures from two lost Egyptian cities and their recent rediscovery by archaeologists beneath the Mediterranean seabed.

Most of the objects were excavated off the coast of Egypt near Alexandria between 1996 and 2012.