The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has been inaugurated in Cairo, the largest archaeological museum in the world and the largest institution dedicated to a single civilization, Ancient Egypt. After 30 years of waiting, the museum will be entirely open to the public from Tuesday: spread over approximately 486,000 square metres, i.e. almost half a square kilometre, this extraordinary museum was built to house over one hundred thousand artefacts covering a period of 3,000 years, starting from prehistory in 7,000 BC
This space (for which an ad hoc airport was inaugurated in 2020) is not only gigantic, but has an extraordinary view of the pyramids: the GEM is in fact located in the middle of the Giza pyramid complex (about 45 minutes from the center of Cairo), which are also visible from the entrance and the large windows. Precisely for this reason, the Grand Egyptian Museum has also been defined as “Great Egyptian Museum in Giza”.
For the inauguration, a spectacular ceremony was organized with a light show with drones, visible in the images below, which projected images of deities, pharaohs and pyramids into the sky.
The idea for this large museum was first mooted in 1992 by former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, as the century-old Egyptian Museum in the capital’s Tahrir Square was unable to handle the growing number of tourists. The project represented a huge financial undertaking for Egypt, which is why years of delays accumulated and the overall cost reached over 1 billion dollars (of which about 800 million came from Japan, a long-time friend of Egypt). Some parts of the museum were already accessible to visitors, but the official inauguration on November 4th is the opportunity to also open the splendid Tutankhamun Gallery.
The museum’s galleries are organized to take visitors on a chronological journey. Each is also divided into three key themes: society, regency and beliefs. The museum also boasts many technological educational resources such as interactive digital displays with data and timelines, animations depicting the lives of construction workers at Giza, and a day at the Greco-Roman market.
But what can’t you miss by visiting this museum?
We start from the series of sculptures that flank the large staircase, even before entering the galleries: statues of pharaohs, obelisks, columns and sarcophagi dot this space. The most stunning sculpture is that of Ramesses II, a 3,200-year-old 83-ton behemoth in the middle of the museum’s atrium.
In the galleries, visitors will be able to admire examples of naos, miniature temples that contained sanctuaries with statuettes of ancient deities; of shabti, groups of statuettes intended to act as servants of the deceased, and the canopic jars (which many Italians have encountered at the Egyptian Museum in Turin) used to preserve organs during the mummification process. Of course, there are also many mummies, including a 4,000-year-old crocodile.
And then there are papyri, everyday objects and above all Tutankhamun’s 5,600 funerary objects, among which stand out his glittering gold mask, the golden throne decorated with a scene of him with his wife, his childhood toys and his recently restored coffin. Finally, the beautiful throne and canopy bed of Queen Hetepheres I dating back to almost 5,000 years ago, and the wooden “solar boat” of her son, King Cheops, dating back to 4,600 years ago: it is one of the best preserved boats of antiquity and according to scholars it could still be used today.
