The Egyptian museum in Cairo (EMC) houses the world's largest collection of antiquities from Pharaonic Egypt. The museum database records not less than 160.000 (one hundred and sixty thousand) pieces currently filling the galleries and storage facilities. The Egyptian government decided to build the EMC in the heart of Cairo to be the first building built intentionally to serve as a museum. The work started in 1897 and the museum was opened on the 15th of November 1902. The building of this one of a kind museum, designed by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon, comprises more than 100 display halls arranged on two floors. The objects on the ground floor are arranged in chronological order, while on the first floor, they are classified by category or in collections. There is also a large basement used to store objects that have not been put on display. Another storage area is located in a part of the third floor. Along with some stone objects, the garden of the museum contains the sarcophagus and bronze statue of Auguste Mariette in its western part, surrounded by busts of distinguished Egyptian and foreign Egyptologists.