Grand Egyptian Museum of antiquities opens at Giza

[ad_1] CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Saturday was inaugurating the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum , the world’s largest museum devoted to an historical civilization — a megaproject additionally aimed toward boosting the nation’s tourism business and troubled economy .

Twenty years within the making, the museum situated close to the Giza Pyramids and Sphinx showcases over 50,000 artifacts detailing life in historical Egypt. It would show the whole assortment of treasures from the tomb of the famed King Tutankhamun for the primary time since its discovery in 1922.

World leaders, together with monarchs, heads of states and governments, had been to attend the grand opening ceremony within the Egyptian capital, in accordance with the president’s workplace, which touted the museum as “an distinctive occasion within the historical past of human tradition and civilization.”

President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi wrote on social media that the museum will convey “collectively the genius of historical Egyptians and the creativity of contemporary Egyptians, enhancing the world tradition and artwork with a brand new landmark that may entice all those that cherish civilization and data.”

A ‘symphony of humanity’ The museum, often called GEM, is considered one of a number of megaprojects championed by el-Sissi since he took workplace in 2014, embarking on large investments in infrastructure with the intention of reviving an economic system weakened by a long time of stagnation and battered by the unrest that adopted the 2011 Arab Spring rebellion.

The museum is predicted to draw 5 million guests yearly, mentioned Egyptian businessman Sir Mohamed Mansour, who's a member of GEM’s board of trustees. That might put it within the ranks of the most well-liked museums on the earth. In 2024, by comparability, Paris’s Louvre introduced in 8.7 million, the British Museum 6.5 million and the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York 5.7 million.

“It’s going to have a huge effect” on the economic system, Mansour informed The Related Press.

The federal government has heralded the grand opening with a burst of pharaoh-mania. On Friday night time, tons of of drones created a lightweight present within the sky of King Tut’s masks and chariot and different of the museum’s most well-known items. Media have been enjoying Egyptian pop songs with movies that includes dancing pharaonic statues.

A public vacation was declared Saturday, and safety round Cairo was tightened. A stage was constructed within the museum courtyard the place an orchestra and musicians would later carry out what the Egyptian media described as a “international symphony of humanity.”

The museum, which has been partially open since final yr, was closed for the previous two weeks for ultimate preparations.

Ramses the Nice and King Tut Building on the $1 billion venture was begun in 2005 underneath then-President Hosni Mubarak. It aimed to exchange the Egyptian Museum, a greater than century-old constructing in downtown Cairo that had turn into packed and disorganized, unable to take care of the sheer quantity of historical antiquities in Egypt.

However work on the museum was interrupted by turmoil surrounding the 2011 rebellion that introduced down Mubarak. Additional delays ensued, and a deliberate grand opening over the summer season needed to be postpone after the 12-day-long struggle between Israel and Iran erupted in June.

The museum boasts a towering, triangular glass façade imitating the close by pyramids, with 24,000 sq. meters (258,000 sq. ft) of everlasting exhibition house.

It opens to a granite colossus of Ramses the Great , considered one of historical Egypt’s strongest pharaohs who reigned for round 60 years, from 1279 B.C. to 1213 B.C., and is credited with increasing historical Egypt’s attain so far as fashionable Syria to the east and fashionable Sudan to the south. The statue greets guests as soon as they step contained in the museum’s angular atrium.

From the atrium, a grand six-story staircase lined with historical statues leads as much as the principle galleries and a view of the pyramids. A bridge hyperlinks the museum to the pyramids, permitting vacationers to maneuver between them both on foot or by way of electrical autos, in accordance with museum officers.

The museum’s 12 important galleries, which opened last year , exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric occasions to the Roman period, organized by period and by themes.

Two halls that can be opened for the primary time with the grand opening are devoted to the 5,000 artifacts from the gathering of King Tutankhamun — a boy pharaoh who dominated from 1361-1352 B.C. The tomb was found by British archaeologist Howard Carter found King Tut’s tomb in 1922 within the southern metropolis of Luxor. However the previous Egyptian Museum didn’t have sufficient room to show the entire assortment, components of which had been typically on tour to museums overseas.

The gathering consists of the boy pharaoh’s three funeral beds and six chariots , his golden throne, his gold-covered sarcophagus and his burial mask , fabricated from gold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and coloured glass.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s most famed archaeologist and former minister of antiquities, mentioned the Tutankhamun assortment is the museum’s masterpiece.

“Why this museum is so essential, and everyone seems to be ready for the opening?” he informed The Related Press. “Due to Tutankhamun.”

Enhance to tourism and economic system Officers hope the museum will draw extra vacationers who will keep for longer intervals and supply the international foreign money wanted to shore up Egypt’s battered economic system.

The federal government has additionally revamped the world across the museum and the close by pyramids and the Sphinx. New highways had been constructed, and a metro station is being constructed close by. An airport, Sphinx Worldwide Airport, has additionally opened west of Cairo — 40 minutes from the museum.

The tourism sector has suffered throughout years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 Arab Spring rebellion. In recent times, the sector has began to get better after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s struggle on Ukraine — each international locations are main sources of vacationers visiting Egypt.

A file variety of about 15.7 million vacationers visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8% of the nation’s GDP, in accordance with official figures. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy has mentioned that general, Egypt expects about 18 million vacationers this yr, with authorities hoping for 30 million guests yearly by 2032.

This can translate into extra jobs and pump international foreign money into the economic system, mentioned Walid el-Batouty, a tour information.

“It is going to be increase the economic system of Egypt tremendously not simply the resorts and the museum itself,” he mentioned. At any time when a vacationer rides a cab and even simply buys a bottle of water, “that's pumping cash” into Egypt’s coffers, he added.

The museum will open to the general public beginning Nov. 4 — the anniversary of Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, authorities mentioned.

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Related Press journalist Ahmed Hatem in Cairo contributed to this report.

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