A dazzling new structure close to the Pyramids in Giza has been built to house many of the most prized antiquities on Earth - charting Egypt’s millennia under the pharaohs.
It may be opening 11 years later than originally planned, but the GEM Complex is now offering limited tours to test site readiness and the visitor experience ahead of the official opening. It's still not entirely clear when it will fully open, but it is expected to be during 2025. In the meantime, the new museum spaces will gradually open to the public over the coming months.
At present visitors can pay to visit the entrance atrium, which is dominated by a 3,200-year-old 36-foot statue of Ramses II. It is so vast that the building was constructed around it.
Designed by Dublin studio Heneghan Peng Architects, the vast complex is the world’s biggest museum, encompassing a 90,000 square metre site in 50 hectares (123 acres) of space right in the shadows of Cairo’s mighty Giza pyramids.
The Grand Egyptian Museum will house more than 100,000 pharaonic artefacts from Ancient Egypt, bringing together priceless pieces from the city’s existing museums under one roof, alongside offering an immersive exhibition space, auditorium, gardens, shops, dining and more. The billion-dollar project will display some of Egypt’s most famous, capturing the imagination of global audiences with its mix of awe-inspiring relics in state-of-the-art facilities. But the Tutankhamun collection will remain in the original Egyptian Museum for the moment.
Former President Hosni Mubarak first set aside the site, approximately two kilometres from the Giza pyramids, back in 1992, and it’s been marked for the museum ever since.
The project has been dogged by logistical, political and financial delays but now, finally, the enormous museum is gradually opening to the public.
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