Cairo: Situated close to the enduring Pyramid Giza, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is making ready for a lavish opening, with a false statue of Rameses II and over 100,000 artifacts, together with Tutankhamun’s gold treasures.
After 20 years of planning, the jewellery is to open fully on July three, following a partial opening in October.
Its lengthy -awaited onset comes after years of delays attributable to political instability, financial crises and world pandemic.
Ahmed Ghoneim, the director of the museum, stated that the inauguration might take a number of days, with holidays that reach past the museum and pyramids on websites in Egypt and even overseas.
“It will likely be a spectacular show case of the historic and vacationer potential of Egypt,” Ghoneim advised Egypt on TV.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisis invited US President Donald Trump and the King of Spain to attend the ceremony.
“This museum is the most important (world) museum for a single civilization, which is pharaonic civilization,” he stated in December.
Over 50 hectares (120 acres), the jewel is twice as excessive because the Louvre in Paris, in addition to the Metropolitan of New York, and twice and a half of the British Museum, in response to its director.
The statue of Ramses II
“The panorama of Egypt contributed to this wealthy civilization and we needed to mirror this within the design,” stated Roisin Heneghan, co-founder of Heneghan Peng Architects, primarily based in Dublin-Firma behind the museum’s design.
“See the items within the museum within the context of the pyramids. You bear in mind the place the place every thing occurred, “she advised AFP.
An 11 -meter (36 meter) statue of Ramses greets the guests, resulting in an important scale lined with statues of pharaohs, gods and sarcophagi and ending at a window framed.
At the moment, 12 galleries show roughly 15,000 chronologically organized artifacts from prehistory to the Greco-Roman interval.
These embrace the treasures of Queen Hetephheres, resembling her carved complicated armchair, in refined lighting, after years of hiding within the outdated Egyptian museum in Tahrir Sq..
Simply earlier than the official opening, the museum left a few of its first guests.
“I can’t overcome how the lighting is. It is just atmospheric and useful and you find yourself solely attracted by every thing round, ”stated Philippa Hunt, a vacationer from the UK.
The South -African customer, Leon Wolmarans, stated that the jewel was a major replace of the outdated one.
“That is significantly better organized, significantly better. The structure is spectacular, ”he advised AFP.
Among the many most anticipated show for the nice opening are Tutankhamun’s treasures, together with his iconic gold masks, which might be happy with a devoted gallery.
Attracting vacationers
Over 5,000 Tutankhamun artifacts have been transferred to the jewel, though its full assortment, together with its sarcophagus and the embalmed stays of its daughters, might be revealed on the official opening.
The jam may also current the cedar boat 44 meters lengthy, buried close to the nice pyramid round 2,500 BC.
One other boat, nonetheless restored, will present immersive expertise, guests watching the conservatives at work within the subsequent three years.
With a state -of -the -art know-how, resembling digital actuality and interactive displays, the jewel guarantees a brand new strategy to the story, making historical past be alive for younger generations.
The positioning of the museum lists entrance costs beginning with 200 Egyptian kilos (about four ) for grownup resorted and 1,200 kilos for foreigners.
Past archeology, the jewel is central for Egypt’s efforts to revive an economic system overwhelmed by inflation and debt.
With the restoration of tourism from the Covid-19 Pandemic, Gem is anticipated to draw 5 million guests yearly, including to a report of 15.7 million vacationers in 2024.
Elhamy al-Zayat, the previous president of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, stated that the strategy of the Museum to the brand new Sphinx Worldwide Airport, the pyramids and a rising variety of close by inns might be a sport changer for the Egypt’s vacationer sector.
“There might be simple transport choices to and from the museum, which is able to entry it from anyplace,” he advised AFP.
“It will undoubtedly flip the vacationer business of Egypt.”