Egypt officially opened the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), described as the world’s largest archaeological facility, near the Pyramids of Giza on Saturday after more than twenty years of construction and delays. 

The museum, which cost around $1 billion to build, covers some 50 hectares. It houses around 100,000 artifacts that span roughly seven millennia of the nation’s history, from the pre-dynastic period to the eras of Greek and Roman rule.  

“We are writing a new chapter of the history of the present and the future in the story of this ancient nation,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated at the opening event. 

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly described the facility as “a gift from Egypt to the whole world from a country whose history goes back more than 7,000 years.”  

The opening included a show with dancers, lasers, music, drones and fireworks, and was attended by international dignitaries including Spain’s King Felipe VI, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. 

Among the highlights on display for the first time are the full collection of treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb and a massive statue of Ramesses II weighing over 80 tons. 

The project was formally announced in the early 1990s but was repeatedly delayed by political turmoil, the Covid-19 pandemic, and regional conflicts. Construction began in 2005 under then-President Hosni Mubarak. 

The museum was designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects. It was built near the Pyramids in order to link modern Egypt with its ancient heritage.  

Since October 2024, the museum has been operating in a trial mode, with select galleries open to limited numbers of visitors ahead of the official launch. 

Meanwhile, Egypt recovered 13 ancient artifacts from the UK and Germany as part of efforts to repatriate smuggled antiquities, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in August. The items include a mummy’s skull and hand, ankh and baboon-shaped amulets, a bronze Osiris crown, and a beaded funerary mask.

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