Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
egypt The Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been under construction for two decades, is being inaugurated on Saturday in a bid to revive the country’s tourism industry and attract more visitors.
located right outside cairo On the Giza Plateau, which also includes three pyramids and the Sphinx, the museum will be the world’s largest museum dedicated to a single civilization. It will display more than 50,000 artefacts detailing life in ancient Egypt.
Egypt’s presidential office has described the museum as “an extraordinary event in the history of human culture and civilization”, with world leaders including monarchs, heads of state and heads of government set to attend the grand opening ceremony.
The museum is one of the megaprojects supported by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi since he took office in 2014. He has launched massive investments in infrastructure aimed at reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings.
Preparations for the grand unveiling have been shrouded in secrecy. The museum, which had been opened for limited visits in recent years, has been closed for the past two weeks.
The government has renovated the museum and its surrounding areas. Giza PyramidRoads were paved and a metro station is being constructed outside the museum gate to improve accessibility. An airport, Sphinx International Airport, has also opened to the west of Cairo – a 40-minute drive from the museum.
The $1 billion facility faced numerous delays, with construction beginning in 2005 but interrupted by political instability.
The museum, known as the GEM, features a massive, triangular glass facade mimicking the nearby pyramids, with 24,000 square meters (258,000 sq ft) of permanent exhibition space.
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 vehicles.
The museum’s 12 main galleries, which opened last year, display antiquities ranging from prehistoric times to antiquity. Roman Organized by era, era and subjects.
Two halls are dedicated to the collection’s 5,000 artefacts. king tutankhamunIt will be put on display 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.
Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s most famous archaeologist and former minister of antiquities, said Tutankhamun’s collection is a museum masterpiece.
“Why is this museum so important, and everyone is waiting for it to open?” he told the Associated Press. “Because of Tutankhamun.”
The collection includes three funerary beds and six chariots of the boy pharaoh, his golden throne, his gold-covered sarcophagus and his burial mask made of gold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and colored glass.
The government’s objective is that the museum will attract more tourists who will stay for a while and provide Egypt with the foreign currency needed to shore up its battered economy.
The tourism sector has suffered during the years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. In recent years, the region has begun to recover from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine – both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
According to official figures, a record number of about 15.7 million tourists are expected to visit Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8% to the country’s GDP. The government aims to attract 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
Officials said the museum will be open to the public from Tuesday.