Last chariot of King Tutankhamun moved to new Grand Egyptian Museum

The last chariot of King Tutankhamun was transferred to the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids plateau on Saturday, the Antiquities Ministry said.

The relocation of the chariot of the 18th dynasty pharaoh from the National Military Museum in Cairo took place as Egypt's Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani was opening an international conference on Tutankhamun at the new museum.

The inauguration of the two-day conference comes a week after a fire erupted at the scaffolding positioned at a building of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is still under construction, but set to open at the end of this year.

The authorities said the fire caused no damage to the museum or casualties. The public prosecutor has opened an investigation.

"More than 70 per cent of the Grand Egyptian Museum has been accomplished and 43,257 artefacts were transferred to it as well as 4,549 of about 5,000 artefacts of Tutankhamun's collection," the minister told the conference.

The chariot, which was assembled and renovated by an Egyptian archaeologist, is one of six discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter at King Tut's treasure-packed tomb in 1922.