"President Hosni Mubarak will open within hours restorations projects of Kalabsha island temples and the unfinished obelisk museum during an upcoming visit to the upper Egyptian antiques rich city, "Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said here Saturday.

    Egyptian archaeologists have succeeded in bring life back to the site and preparing it as an open museum of Ancient Egyptian and Roman arts at a cost of 20 million pounds, he added.

    The area contains four temples, he said, adding one of the temples of Garf Hussein, built by King Ramses II was reassembled for the first time after it was rescued and removed by UNISCQ-led international campaign in 1960s.

    It was strange that Kalabsha, only 500 m from the High Dam and in the centre of Aswan City, has never been on the foreign or domestic tourist programmes, said Supreme Council of Antiquities Secretary General Zahi Hawwas.

    The Island has a unique historic and natural beauty that needed only restoration work and propaganda, he added.