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Grand Egyptian archive After two decades of anticipation and countless delays, its grand reveal is finally happening.
Museum highlights egyptThe ancient civilization is scheduled to officially open on Saturday. It is the centerpiece of the government’s campaign to boost the tourism industry, a major source of foreign exchange in the cash-strapped country.
Located next to the famous Giza pyramid just outside cairoA massive $1 billion facility is poised to be built WorldThe largest museum dedicated to a single civilization, containing over 50,000 artifacts detailing life in ancient Egypt. By comparison, louvre About 35,000 artefacts are on display in the Paris Museum.
The museum is one of the mega-projects championed by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, who since taking office in 2014 launched a massive investment in infrastructure aimed at reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
Construction of the museum began in 2005, but work was halted for three years during the political turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising.
The grand opening was postponed several times due to the conflict in the Middle East, most recently in July this year. World leaders are expected to attend the opening ceremony on Saturday.
Designed by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects, the museum, known as GEM, boasts a massive, triangular glass facade mimicking the nearby pyramids.
In its entrance stands the granite colossus of one of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs, Ramesses the Great. The 3,200-year-old, 11-metre-high (36-foot-tall) statue was moved to the museum after standing for decades in the center of the traffic-choked intersection in front of Cairo’s main railway station.
From the atrium, a grand six-story staircase decorated with ancient sculptures leads up to the main galleries and overlooks the nearby pyramids. According to museum officials, a bridge connects the museum to the pyramids, allowing tourists to move between them on foot or via electric, eco-friendly vehicles.
The museum includes 24,000 square meters (258,000 sq ft) of permanent exhibition space, a children’s museum and conference and educational facilities, and a commercial area as well as a large conservation centre.
The 12 main galleries, which opened last year, display antiquities ranging from prehistoric times to the Roman era, arranged by era and theme.
Many of the GEM’s 50,000 artifacts were moved from the Egyptian Museum, a packed, centuries-old building in downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Others were recently discovered from ancient cemeteries, including the Saqqara Necropolis, another complex of pyramids and tombs about 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the museum.
The halls are equipped with advanced facilities technology and features multimedia presentations, including mixed-reality shows, to help explain ancient Egypt to new generations, said Ahmed Ghoneim, the museum’s CEO.
“We are using language that Gen Z “Gen Z no longer uses the labels we read as older people, but uses technology.”
Saturday’s grand opening will include the opening of two halls dedicated to 5,000 artifacts from King Tutankhamun’s collection.
The collection is being displayed in its entirety for the first time since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut’s tomb in the southern city of Luxor in 1922. The Old Egypt Museum did not have enough space to display all the tomb’s treasures together.
Some masterpieces were restored at the museum’s conservation center, including three funerary beds of the boy pharaohs and six chariots, said Jailan Mohammed, chief restorer of the conservation center.
He will be displayed with his golden throne, his gold-covered coffin and his burial mask made of gold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and colored glass. The mask’s beard was accidentally broken and was hastily glued back on with epoxy in 2014, before it was repaired by a team of German-Egyptian experts the following year.
Another centerpiece of the museum is the 4,600-year-old solar boat of King Khufu, the pharaoh who is credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza. The 43-metre-long (140-foot) wooden boat, discovered in the 1950s, was buried next to the Great Pyramid for Khufu – or Cheops, as he was also known – to use in the afterlife. In 2021, it was transported from its display site to the Grand Egyptian Museum by Pyramids on a remote-controlled vehicle imported from Belgium.
The government hopes that the museum will attract more tourists who will stay for a while and provide Egypt with the foreign currency needed to strengthen its economy.
The tourism sector faced years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. In recent years, the sector has begun to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are a major source of tourists visiting Egypt.
According to official figures, a record number of 15.7 million people visited the country in 2024 and the government aims to attract 30 million visitors by 2032.
Authorities repaired the museum and the entire area around the pyramids. Roads were paved and a metro station is being constructed outside the museum gate to make access to the sites easier. An airport west of Cairo, Sphinx International Airport, also opened – a 40-minute drive from the museum.
Hassan Allam, CEO of Hassan Allam Holding, the company that operates the museum, said they were expecting 15,000 to 20,000 visitors a day to the museum.
“The world is waiting… everyone is excited,” he said.
Huge building overlooking Giza pyramids Tutankhamun collection in one place for the first time Government hopes museum will revive tourism