The new Nubian Museum was opened in 1997 and the beautiful lines of its architecture alone is worth seeing. Nestled into the hillside, it covers 50,000 square metres of landscaped gardens and buildings which are divided up into different sections. It is partly an open-air museum where the visitor can wander the paths, meandering between a prehistoric cave with painted rock-art, ancient Egyptian statues, obelisks and columns, Roman frescoes and even a complete Nubian house.[br] The museum houses 3.000 artifacts representing various archaeological periods throughout the history of Egypt (prehistoric, pharaonic, Hellenic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic).