After 20 years and an estimated cost of $1 billion, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) opened its doors to the public on Tuesday, just days after its official opening ceremony on Saturday.
Considered the world’s largest archaeological site of a single civilization, the museum is located 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Pyramids of Giza and 8 km (5 miles) from the capital, Cairo.
The complex covers approximately 500,000 square meters (5,381,900 square feet) and houses more than 100,000 ancient artifacts from 30 ancient Egyptian dynasties.
Key attractions include the 3,200-year-old, 11.36-meter (37-foot) tall statue of Ramses II, the complete collection of Tutankhamun’s treasures, and a 4,500-year-old ship owned by Khufu, the pharaoh famous for building the Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the world’s oldest intact ships.
grand egyptian museum design
The museum is known as the “Fourth Pyramid” of the Giza Plateau, and is home to three pyramids that are approximately 4,500 years old: the Great Pyramid of Giza (built for King Khufu), the Pyramid of Khafre (built for King Khafre), and the Pyramid of Menkaure (built for King Menkaure).
Visitors can view the pyramids from inside the museum. The museum is designed in the shape of a beveled triangle, reflecting the geometry of the pyramids. The museum’s north and south walls are aligned with the pyramids of Khufu and Menkaure.
The design, created by Irish architectural firm Heneghan Penn, uses sand-colored concrete and translucent alabaster stone, while the museum’s main façade is made of frosted glass panels.
Construction of the complex was announced in 1992, but construction did not begin until 2005 and was delayed by political turmoil following the 2011 Arab Spring and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some areas of the museum were soft launched in 2024.
The museum complex includes the main building, conference center, courtyard, Nile Valley Park, Khufu Ship Museum, and conservation center.
Inside the museum
Upon entering the museum, visitors are greeted by a 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II that weighs approximately 83 tons.
From 1954 to 2006, the statue was installed in Ramses Square in front of Cairo Central Station, and then moved to a new location near the museum. To facilitate transportation, the statue was transported upright and in one piece on a specially designed 128-wheel vehicle, traveling a distance of 30 km (19 miles) and requiring temporary road closures.
At the entrance is a six-story grand staircase lined with approximately 60 artifacts, including statues praising the gods, sarcophagi for the deceased, columns displaying the artistry of ancient architecture, and stone monuments inscribed with important texts.
The museum has 12 main permanent exhibition halls, which opened last year and is organized by both period (from prehistory to Greco-Roman times) and theme (society, kingship, faith, etc.).
Tutankhamun’s gallery
One of the museum’s most prominent and largest exhibition spaces is the Tutankhamun Gallery. The 7,500 square meter (80,000 square foot) space features more than 5,000 artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king who ascended the throne at the age of about nine and ruled the 18th Dynasty some 3,400 years ago.
Tutankhamun is one of the most famous pharaohs, despite his short reign that ended with his unexpected death at about 18 or 19 years old. The main reason for this is that his tomb was discovered in 1922, almost intact, in the Valley of the Kings on the west side of the Nile River, opposite the city of Luxor.
Visitors can see his golden mask, throne, sarcophagus, chariot, and jewelry displayed to recreate the atmosphere of the king’s burial chamber.
One of the world’s largest museums
The Grand Egyptian Museum has approximately 45,000 square meters (484,000 square feet) of exhibition space, making it the sixth largest museum in the world by exhibition space.
The Louvre in Paris topped the list with 72,735 square meters, followed by the State Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia (66,842 square meters), the National Museum of China in Beijing (65,000 square meters), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City (58,820 square meters) and the Prado Museum in Madrid, Spain (47,700 square meters). meters).
Tourism is Egypt’s main source of foreign exchange. According to official statistics, a record 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, with the travel and tourism sector contributing about 8% to gross domestic product.
