The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, Egypt, has been officially reopened following an eight-year, US$10m (£6.3m, 7.7m euro) restoration project.

However, despite being opened by the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak this weekend, the public opening is not until early September.

The 25-gallery museum boasts more than 2,500 artefacts, which were chosen from a collection of 100,000 pieces.

According to the AFP news service, exhibits include a gold-inlaid key to the Kaaba, the building that houses the black stone in the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca, and the oldest Islamic dinar coin ever found, dating back to the year 697.

Rare manuscripts of the Koran are also on display as well as Ottoman-era ceramics and ancient instruments used in the sciences of astronomy, chemistry and architecture.

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