The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), also known as the Giza Museum or Cairo new museum is approximately two kilometers from the Giza pyramid complex, sited on 50 hectares (120 acres) of land. Being this close to the pyramids of Giza makes it easier for tourists to travel between the two and avoid Cairo’s traffic.
Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest museum dedicated to a single civilization and the second largest architectural competition in history. It is expected to attract around 5 million visitors a year, 15,000 visitors per day, roughly three times the number of people who visit the current museum daily. It will house some of Egypt’s most precious pieces that are for the first time on display!
On 7 January 2002 when Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone of the Grand Egyptian Museum. There was an architectural competition announced for participants to apply their plans for this new museum, 82 countries applied their plans and the competition was won by architects Róisín Heneghan & Shi-Fu Peng, and their company Heneghan.peng.architects (Ireland)
It is shaped like a triangle in plan, the building’s north and south walls line up directly with the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Menkaure
One of the main features of the museum is the translucent stone wall, made of alabaster, that makes up the front facade of the building. Inside the main entrance is a large atrium, where large statues will be exhibited.
The total estimated project cost is $550m. In 2007, GEM secured a $300 million loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The Egyptian government will fund $147 million while the remaining will be financed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, other donations and international funds.
The Tutankhamun galleries upstairs, the museum’s star attraction, are still out of bounds. The Egyptians have indicated that they will show examples of everything from Tutankhamun collection for the first time. Howard Carter counted 5,398 artifacts when he discovered the tomb in 1922; the museum database puts the figure at 5,600. Besides the gold treasures—death mask, diadem, coffins, chariots, jewellery—visitors can expect to see more everyday objects: the pharaoh’s walking sticks, loincloths, boomerangs, games and food boxes of coriander seeds and juniper berries.
Carter was surprised by how small the tomb was—just four rooms spanning 110 sq. m. The museum will have a replica tomb, the same that opened in the Valley of the Kings in 2014. But the galleries will be more than 60 times the size of the original tomb, 7,000 sq. m in total. The intention is to display the treasures in four spaces and in the room order that Carter found them.
The University of Oxford’s Griffith Institute, which holds the Carter archive, is supplying digital scans of around 100 historic photographs of the excavation by Harry Burton. These will include the portrait of the Egyptian waterboy said to have found the first step down to the tomb, pictured wearing a scarab pendant of Tutankhamun.
The Grand Egyptian Museum also coveted the pharaoh’s mummy. It was due to be moved from the tomb in May but the locals managed to win the argument. They regard the mummy as their ancestor and a tourist attraction in his own right. Hawass is sympathetic, saying that: “The people of Luxor think that their grandfather should stay there, and I really do respect this. The mummy will stay there.”
Japan International Cooperation Agency, which has trained hundreds of Egyptian conservators. At the conservation centre, an Egyptian-Japanese team has been carrying out the first scientific study of textiles from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Evidently of little interest to Carter, textiles were among the most deteriorated artifacts found in the tomb.
There are 115 loincloths made of the finest linen and 93 pairs of shoes, mostly sandals. The conservators have identified pharaonic headgear, socks and an archer’s arm pad. Japanese textile expert Mie Ishii says that the clothes tell you a lot about the wearer. In her view, Tutankhamun was “a very sensitive young man, fine-boned, always clean and spotless” and dressed in “the most beautiful and comfortable cloths that the kingdom could offer”.
The new Egyptian museum is designed to include the latest technology, including virtual reality. The museum will also be an international center of communication between museums, to promote direct contact with other local and international museums. GEM will include a children’s museum, conference center, training center, and workshops similar to the old Pharaonic places.
The Grand Egyptian Museum was supposed to be officially opened by the end of 2020. In April, the president Al-Sisi pushed back the opening date of the museum from late 2020 to 2021 because of “Covid 19-developments”. World leaders will also need reasonable notice to attend, for as the general puts it, “Egypt’s gift to the world deserves a huge celebration”.