Grand Egyptian Museum: Egypt’s New Cultural Wonder and World’s Largest Archaeological Museum

Asianet News English

Find out the Grand Egyptian Museum, the world’s largest archaeological museum, located just steps from the iconic Giza Pyramids. This $1.2 billion marvel houses over 100,000 artifacts spanning 7,000 years of Egyptian history. Watch.&nbsp;

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00:00Near the ancient pyramids of Giza, just outside Cairo, the Grand Egyptian Museum had its lavish

00:09opening on 1st November after two decades of delays. Massive statues and historic artifacts

00:15from the country's ancient civilization were on display across the 24,000 square meters of

00:20permanent exhibition space. Here are five things to know about the museum, which Egyptian authorities

00:26have called, the largest cultural building of the 21st century.

00:38An imitation of the nearby pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkara, the museum's triangular

00:44glass structure, was designed by the Irish firm Hennigan-Peng Architects. The state-of-the-art

00:50complex, dubbed the Fourth Pyramid of the Giza Plateau, houses around 100,000 artifacts,

00:56from the 30 dynasties of ancient Egypt's pharaohs. About half of the collection is on display,

01:01with the rest kept in storage. The towering $1 billion facility, which has been more than

01:0620 years in the making, is expected to draw more than 5 million visitors every year. The

01:11government hopes the museum will play a central role in reviving an Egyptian economy battered

01:16by debt and inflation.

01:26An 11-meter granite statue of Ramses the Great greets visitors in the vast entrance atrium. Ramses II,

01:32the third king of the 19th dynasty, reigned more than 3,000 years ago, and is among the greatest

01:38of all the Egyptian pharaohs. His statue has toured the world twice, attracting millions of visitors

01:44in 1986, and then from 2021 to 2025. The museum will be the statue's final home after several relocations,

01:54since its discovery in 1820 near a temple in ancient Memphis, south of Cairo. From 1954 to 2006,

02:02the statue stood in front of Cairo's main train station. One gallery is dedicated to the 5,000

02:15artifacts from the collection of King Tutankhamun, the most well-known figure of ancient Egypt. The

02:20full collection is in one place for the first time since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered

02:26the famed pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in 1922. The boy king's gold

02:32covered sarcophagus and his burial mask, inlaid with lapis lazuli, took center stage at the opening.

02:38After years of debate, genetic tests conducted in the early 2000s suggested malaria and a bone

02:45disease led to the pharaoh's death at the age of 19.

02:56A separate building was designed for the 4,600-year-old solar boat of Pharaoh Hufu,

03:01one of the largest and oldest wooden artifacts from antiquity. The 44-meter-long cedar and acacia

03:07wooden boat was discovered in 1954, near the Great Pyramid of Khufu, the largest of the three

03:13structures. Over the next three years, visitors will also be able to watch experts from behind a glass wall,

03:19as they restore another boat discovered in 1987.

03:29The museum was partially open to the public in October 2024. Launched in 2002 under then-president

03:36Hosni Mubarak, its grand opening was delayed by political turmoil after the 2011 uprising,

03:43the COVID-19 pandemic, and regional conflicts. The museum is built around a colossal six-story staircase,

03:50lined with mammoth statues and ancient tombs, leading to a panoramic window with a view of

03:55the nearby pyramids. Twelve main galleries trace civilization across 5,000 years of history,

04:02from prehistoric times to the Roman era. The complex also includes storage areas open to researchers,

04:08laboratories, and restoration workshops. It was open to the public on November 4th.

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