by Osama Radi, Hamoudi Gharib GAZA, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Standing in his museum in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, Marwan Shahwan said proudly that the museum is 'an individual effort.' The 165-square meter museum, situated on the ground floor of Shahwan's house, includes antiques dating back to Roman, Byzantine, Islamic and Palestinian eras. Full of inscriptions, beautiful geometric designs and ancient coins, the museum also has traditional dresses Palestinian women wore before 1948 and hand-made copper masterpieces. 'It took me some 25 years to build up my museum,' the 45-year- old Shahwan, who travels around Gaza to look for antiques, told Xinhua. 'I worked hard and visited popular markets on a daily basis to buy antiques,' said Shahwan, who spend most of his time collecting and fixing antiques, 'I also got antiques from friends and relatives.' 'I started my adventure of collecting since I was a child,' he said. Shahwan's museum has been visited by both Arab and Western delegations interested in learning the history of the Gaza Strip, however, Shahwan has never asked them to pay for their visits. 'I refuse to run my museum for commercial purposes and I also refuse to receive big delegations for fear that the crowds would destroy the antiques,' Shahwan said, adding 'the place is not big and doesn't have any protection, especially the small pieces.' Shahwan had rejected several times offers by Palestinian and international businessmen to buy his antiques for high prices. 'My efforts and the precious antiques I own are invaluable, they represent the ancient Palestinian history and civilizations of different eras and nations.' Shahwan also showed his enthusiasm for establishing a big national museum. The future national museum 'will be able to receive visitors and tourists from all over the world,' he said, adding 'other Arab and international museums can also exhibit our antiques.' Archeologists said the Gaza Strip has lots of ancient sites and pieces belonging to different civilizations that had flourished in the strip over the past hundreds of years. The Hamas-run Tourism Ministry has launched several projects to search for antiques. Two months ago, parts of an ancient construction was announced to be discovered in Gaza. Archeologists estimated that the house is 800 years old. In January 1,300 coins belonging to different ancient civilizations had been discovered in the enclave. 