A first look at Egypt’s new Grand Egyptian Museum - As-salamu alaykum
As-salamu alaykum. After about 20 years and roughly $1bn, the Grand Egyptian Museum finally opened to the public this week, a few days after its formal inauguration.
Located about 2km from the Giza pyramids and roughly 8km from Cairo, the complex is being praised as the largest archaeological museum dedicated to a single civilisation. The site covers nearly 500,000 sq metres and will hold over 100,000 ancient artefacts from Egypt’s 30 dynasties.
Highlights include the 3,200-year-old, 11.36-metre statue of King Ramses II, the full trove of Tutankhamun’s treasures, and a 4,500-year-old boat from Khufu - one of the oldest intact ships known. Some have even nicknamed the museum the “fourth pyramid” on the Giza Plateau, home to the three ancient pyramids built about 4,500 years ago.
The museum’s design echoes the pyramids: its chamfered-triangle shape and sightlines let visitors look toward the monuments from inside. The designers used sand-coloured concrete and translucent alabaster-style stone, with a frosted glass main facade.
Plans for the complex date back to 1992, though building didn’t begin until 2005 and was delayed by political events and the pandemic. Parts of the museum opened in 2024, and the site now includes the main building, a conference centre, a courtyard, a Nile Valley park, the Khufu Boat Museum and a conservation centre.
At the entrance stands the massive Ramses II statue, weighing about 83 tonnes. The statue had been in Ramses Square for decades before being moved carefully on a specially built 128-wheel vehicle some 30km to its new home.
Inside, a six-storey grand staircase is lined with around 60 pieces - statues of gods, sarcophagi, columns and inscribed stelae. There are 12 main permanent halls arranged by era (from prehistory through the Greco-Roman period) and by themes like society, kingship and belief.
One of the standout spaces is the Tutankhamun Gallery, a large hall displaying more than 5,000 items from the boy king’s tomb - his golden mask, throne, sarcophagus, chariots and jewellery, laid out to evoke his burial chamber.
With about 45,000 sq metres of display space, the Grand Egyptian Museum ranks among the world’s largest museums by exhibition area.
Tourism is vital for Egypt’s economy: in 2024 a record 15.7 million visitors came to the country, and the travel sector contributes a significant share of GDP. May this new museum be a blessing for preserving and sharing our rich history, and a source of benefit for the people of Egypt. Salam.
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