After 20 years and an estimated price of $1bn, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) opened its doorways to the general public on Tuesday, only a few days after the official opening ceremony on Saturday.
Considered the world’s largest archaeological facility for a single civilisation, the museum is positioned 2km (1.2 miles) from the pyramids of Giza and 8km (5 miles) from the capital, Cairo.
The complicated spans practically 500,000sq metres (5,381,900sq ft) and can home greater than 100,000 historic artefacts from the 30 dynasties of historic Egypt.
A number of the fundamental points of interest embody the three,200-year-old, 11.36-metre (37ft) statue of King Ramses II, the whole assortment of Tutankhamun’s treasures and a 4,500-year-old boat, one of many oldest intact ships on the earth, belonging to Khufu, the pharaoh famend for constructing the Nice Pyramid of Giza.
The Grand Egyptian Museum’s design
The museum has been referred to as the “fourth pyramid” of the Giza Plateau, which is residence to a few pyramids about 4,500 years previous: the Nice Pyramid of Giza (constructed for Pharaoh Khufu), the Pyramid of Khafre (constructed for Pharaoh Khafre) and the Pyramid of Menkaure (constructed for Pharaoh Menkaure).
Guests can view the pyramids from contained in the museum, which is designed within the form of a chamfered triangle, echoing the geometry of the pyramids. The museum’s north and south partitions are aligned with the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Menkaure.
The design, created by the Irish structure agency Heneghan Peng, makes use of sand-coloured concrete and translucent alabaster stone whereas the museum’s fundamental facade is manufactured from frosted glass panels.
The complicated was introduced in 1992, however development didn’t start till 2005 and was delayed by political turmoil after the 2011 Arab Spring and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some areas of the museum had a tender launch in 2024.
The museum complicated consists of the primary constructing, a convention centre, a courtyard, a Nile Valley park, the Khufu Boat Museum and a conservation centre.
A glance contained in the museum
Upon getting into the museum, guests are greeted by the three,200-year-old statue of King Ramses II, which weighs about 83 tonnes.
From 1954 to 2006, the statue stood in Ramses Sq. in entrance of Cairo’s fundamental prepare station earlier than being relocated to its new location close to the museum. To facilitate the transfer, the statue was transported upright and in a single piece on a specifically designed 128-wheel car, protecting a distance of 30km (19 miles) and necessitating short-term street closures.
Past the doorway is the six-storey grand staircase, lined with about 60 artefacts, together with statues that honour deities, sarcophagi that maintain the deceased, columns showcasing historic architectural artistry,, and stelae inscribed with important texts.
The museum boasts 12 fundamental everlasting exhibition halls, which opened final 12 months and are organised by each period (starting from prehistory by means of the Greco-Roman interval) and theme (together with society, kingship and perception).
The Tutankhamun gallery
Among the many museum’s most distinguished and largest exhibition areas is the Tutankhamun Gallery, a 7,500sq-metre (80,000sq-ft) house that options greater than 5,000 artefacts unearthed from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ascended to the throne at about 9 years previous and dominated in the course of the Eighteenth Dynasty practically 3,400 years in the past.
Regardless of his transient reign, which ended along with his sudden loss of life at about 18 or 19 years previous, Tutankhamun is without doubt one of the most well-known pharaohs, largely as a result of discovery of his practically intact tomb in 1922 within the Valley of the Kings on the west facet of the Nile reverse the town of Luxor.
Guests can see his golden masks, throne, sarcophagus, chariots and jewelry, all offered to re-create the ambiance of his royal burial chamber.
One of many world’s largest museums
The Grand Egyptian Museum has about 45,000sq metres (484,000sq ft) of exhibition house, making it the sixth largest museum on the earth by show space.
The Louvre in Paris tops the record with 72,735sq metres, adopted by the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (66,842sq metres), the Nationwide Museum of China in Beijing (65,000sq metres), the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York Metropolis (58,820sq metres) and the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain (47,700sq metres).
Tourism is a serious supply of overseas foreign money for Egypt. In 2024, a file 15.7 million vacationers visited Egypt, and the journey and tourism sector contributed roughly 8 % of the nation’s gross home product, in keeping with official figures.
