By Viola Fahmy

CAIRO

In a bid to lure tourists, Egyptian authorities will showcase ancient artifacts on the metro, for the first time since a 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

In a statement on Monday, the Egyptian Company for Metro Management and Operation said Pharaonic statues have been placed at Sadat station, a major downtown metro station, located below central Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

The square was the epicenter of 18 days of protests that forced Mubarak to step down after three decades in power.

“The move aims to promote tourism in central Cairo,” company chairman Ali Fadali said in the statement.

Egyptian authorities had showcased ancient artifacts on the metro before the anti-Mubarak uprising, but the practice came to a halt in 2011.

Egypt’s tourism industry, one of the country’s main sources of foreign currency, was hard-hit by years of political turmoil since 2011.