Travelers Can See King Tut and Relics at Grand Egyptian New Museum

Travelers Can See King Tut and Relics at Grand Egyptian New Museum

Individuals traveling to Egypt can tour a popular attraction. Multiple news outlets worldwide have announced the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) opening, located next to the Giza Pyramids. In addition to the Giza Pyramids, visitors can tour Pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb and other ancient relics.

The GEM construction project had a rough start. The concept stemmed from an international design competition in 2002, years after the country's president, Hosni Mubarak, announced plans to build a museum of this scale in 1992. Heneghan Peng Architects won the contest, and construction began in 2005. However, several setbacks related to political unrest and financial issues interrupted the project's progress.

In 2014, the project received an infusion of funding and resumed construction. Much later, COVID-19, which shut down the world community, hampered construction. While the GEM announced its grand opening for July 2025, it provided limited access to some of the exhibits in February 2023. Since October 2024, the museum has given visitors access to 12 galleries that narrate the civilization's evolution across the millennia as part of opening the museum in phases.

The museum measures 500,000 square meters, or two and a half times the size of Paris's Louvre Museum and twice that of the British Museum. The project accumulated a price tag of $1.2 billion, with $750 million financed. The Egyptian government paid the remaining balance. An architectural marvel, the GEM received the UNESCO Prix Versailles prize in 2024.

Visitors can tour Tutankhamun Hall, which spans 7,500 square meters and displays the pharaoh's tomb. The museum also displays over 5,000 items from the tomb's collection, including sarcophagi, chariots, and jewelry. Representatives from the museum stated that it would display all items, including those that were off-limits. The museum will also display the embryos of the pharaoh's daughters.

Museum curators have emphasized giving visitors a sense of royal life in antiquity. Visitors can view relics from Queen Hetephere's reign, including the Solar Boats of Khufu, which are on display for the first time. Professionals found one boat near the Giza Pyramid and transferred it to the museum, and the second one is undergoing restoration. Additionally, visitors will see a great statue of Ramses II upon entering the museum's Grand Hall. They will also encounter the Grand Staircase, decorated with 60 artifacts, and a reconstruction of Tomb Chapel Khnumhotep II, where visitors will learn about ancient burial practices.

In addition to exhibiting ancient Egyptian royal life, curators will display approximately 15,000 artifacts from Cairo, Luxor, Delta, Alexandria, Fayoum, Suef, Beni, Assiut, Minya, and Sohag museums. In sum, visitors to the museum will see artifacts dating from Egypt's Old Kingdom through the Graeco-Roman period.

The grand opening celebrates the decades of hard work of those involved in completing the project, with event planners hinting at festivities lasting several days, three days a week, and possibly several months. The United Media Services Company is in charge of organizing the Grand Opening celebration. This company also oversaw the 2021 Golden Pharaoh Parade in Cairo and the Avenue of Sphinxes opening ceremony in Luxor. According to a February 2025 MSN article, the GEM opening ceremony will reflect the importance of the museum being a global structure and the largest museum in the world.

Source: paulinmodi