The vast complex is expected to attract up to eight million visitors a year
Near one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza – Egypt is officially opening what it intends as a cultural highlight of the modern age.
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), described as the world’s largest archaeological museum, is packed with some 100,000 artefacts covering some seven millennia of the country’s history from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras.
Prominent Egyptologists argue that its establishment strengthens their demand for key Egyptian antiquities held in other countries to be returned – including the famed Rosetta Stone displayed at the British Museum.
A main draw of the GEM will be the entire contents of the intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, displayed together for the first time since it was found by British Egyptologist Howard Carter. They include Tutankhamun’s spectacular gold mask, throne and chariots.
“I had to think, how can we show him in a different way, because since the discovery of the tomb in 1922, about 1,800 pieces from a total of over 5,500 that were inside the tomb were on display,” says Dr Tarek Tawfik, president of the International Association of Egyptologists and former head of the GEM.
“I had the idea of displaying the complete tomb, which means nothing remains in storage, nothing remains in other museums, and you get to have the complete experience, the way Howard Carter had it over a hundred years ago.”
Costing some $1.2bn (£910m; €1.1bn), the vast museum complex is expected to attract up to 8m visitors a year, giving a huge boost to Egyptian tourism which has been hit by regional crises.
“We hope the Grand Egyptian Museum will usher in a new golden age of Egyptology and cultural tourism,” says Ahmed Seddik, a guide and aspiring Egyptologist by the pyramids on the Giza Plateau.
Apart from the Tutankhamun exhibit and a new display of the spectacular, 4,500-year-old funerary boat of Khufu – one of the oldest and best-preserved vessels from antiquity – most of the galleries at the site have been opened to the public since last year.
“I’ve been organising so many tours to the museum even though it was partially open,” Ahmed continues. “Now it will be at the pinnacle of its glory. When the Tutankhamun collection opens, then you can imagine the whole world will come back, because this is an iconic Pharoah, the most famous king of all antiquity.”
“It’s an absolute must-see,” says Spanish tourist, Raúl, who is awaiting the full public opening on 4 November.
“We’re just waiting to go and check out all of the Egyptian artefacts,” says Sam from London, who is on an Egypt tour. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
Another British tourist says she previously saw the Tutankhamun exhibits on display at the neoclassical Egyptian Museum in bustling Tahrir Square.
“The old museum was pretty chaotic, and it was a bit confusing,” she comments. “Hopefully the Grand Museum will be a lot easier to take in and I think you will just get more out of it.”
The new museum is colossal, spanning 500,000 square metres (5.4m sq ft) – about the size of 70 football pitches. The exterior is covered in hieroglyphs and translucent alabaster cut into triangles with a pyramid shaped entrance.
Among the GEM showstoppers are a 3,200-year-old, 16m-long suspended obelisk of the powerful pharaoh, Ramesses II, and his massive 11m-high statue. The imposing statue was moved from close to the Cairo railway station in 2006, in a complex operation in preparation for the new institution.
A giant staircase is lined with the statues of other ancient kings and queens and on an upper floor a huge window offers a perfectly framed view of the Giza pyramids.
The museum was first proposed in 1992, during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak, and construction began in 2005. It has now taken nearly as long to complete as the Great Pyramid, according to estimates.