After 20 years of work and a series of postponements, the Grand Egyptian Museum, dedicated to the pharaonic civilization, opens this Saturday, the 1st, in Cairo, in an event aimed at boosting tourism.
The installation, with a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids and dedicated to the pharaohs – 30 dynasties over 5,000 years – cost more than US$1 billion (R$5.3 billion).
Authorities hope to welcome five million visitors a year to this contemporary building, which houses around 100,000 pieces of Egyptian antiquity, including some never before exhibited.
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Among the main attractions, the 5,000 pieces of Tutankhamun’s treasure stand out, which for the first time will be gathered in a single location since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered it in 1922 in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in Upper Egypt.
The museum was partially opened to the public a year ago, and due to its dimensions and triangular structure it received the nickname “fourth pyramid”. Its design was created by Irish architect studio Heneghan Peng, with 24 thousand m2 of permanent exhibition space.
After the public opening, visitors will be able to discover 4.5 ml of funerary objects out of the 5,000 so far dispersed in different institutions across the country.
The museum opens onto an 11-meter granite statue of Ramses the Great. He was one of the most powerful pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, who reigned for about 60 years, and is credited with expanding Ancient Egypt’s reach into modern Syria to the east and modern Sudan to the south. The statue greets visitors as they enter the museum’s angular atrium.
From the atrium, a grand six-story staircase lined with ancient statues leads to the main galleries and a view of the pyramids. A bridge connects the museum to the pyramids, allowing tourists to travel between them on foot or by electric vehicle, according to museum officials.
Country bets on inauguration
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Given the political relevance of the inauguration, President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi last week led a high-level meeting to review the progress of preparations, according to an official statement.
At this meeting, the head of state insisted on “the need for reinforced coordination to guarantee an opening ceremony worthy of Egypt’s prestige and its role as the cradle of world civilization”, stated the note.
After several postponements due to the Arab Spring (2011) and, later, the Covid-19 pandemic (started in 2020), the date of July 3 was set for the opening. But, at the last minute, amid tensions in the Middle East and to give the event “the global scope it deserves”, the authorities preferred to postpone the date again.
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To reach a wider audience, the United Media Services (UMS) group, the Egyptian communications giant responsible for the event, said it had signed an agreement with TikTok to give greater visibility to the country’s cultural panorama.
After years marked by political instability, several attacks and the pandemic, the tourism sector, fundamental to the Egyptian economy, is recovering.
The country received 15 million foreign visitors in the first nine months of the year, an increase of 21% compared to the same period of the previous year.
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Authorities expect a total of 17.8 million tourists in 2025 and 18.6 million in 2026.
*With international agencies AFP and AP
