The rebuilt Neues Museum in Berlin opens to the public on October 17, more than 60 years after bombing in the second world war left much of the building in ruins. The museum is one of five neo-classical buildings that make up the Unesco-protected Museum Island, erected by the Prussian kings as a display cabinet for their treasures.

The grand stairway. The museum reopens after a decade of painstaking restoration work, marking a major step forward in a marathon project to revive the German capital's neoclassical Museum Island complex.

View to the central stairway. British architect David Chipperfield reconstructed the remains of the Neues Museum originally built by Friedrich August Stueler between 1843 and 1855. The stairs lead upwards in a sweep of light, the fire-damaged and weathered Ionic columns resemble the artefacts they originally copied.

An exhibition hall showing Egyptian artifacts.

The famous portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti. The painted limestone bust is said to date from 1360 BC .

The bust of Nefertiti was found in 1912 on the banks of the Nile at Tel-El-Amarna (ancient Akhetaton).

The gallery displaying the Nefertiti bust.

The bust of a statue of King Amenemhet III. Germany's Collection of Ancient Antiquities as well as the collection of Pre and Early History is back in its original location in Berlin.

The 'Berlin Gold Hat' a late Bronze Age headdress.

The museum's library of antiquity.