This New Archeological Museum Is the Largest in the World — With 100,000 Items From Ancient Times

Following two decades of setbacks, the much-anticipated Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has opened its doors, giving the public access to never-before-seen artifacts and sweeping views of the Pyramids of Giza. The museum launched a trial phase in October, unveiling 12 main galleries with an estimated 15,000 items on display. Visitors can glimpse at ancient Egypt’s cultural treasures while curators prepare for the full opening.

Antiquities available for viewing include a 36-foot-high, 83-ton statue of the pharaoh Ramses II, canopic jars still containing mummified organs, 3,000-year-old writing boards with school notes and math exercises, ornate sarcophaguses, and towering stone slabs, known as stelas, containing government edicts in hieroglyphs.

The exhibits currently open to the public mark only a fraction of the museum’s eventual offerings. Situated on the outskirts of Cairo and spanning 50 hectares — equivalent to approximately 93 American football fields — the sprawling complex encompasses rotating and permanent galleries, research facilities, and a library dedicated to Egyptology. Once all galleries are operational, for which the official date remains unannounced, The Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest archeological museum in the world and display more than 100,000 items from antiquity.

Designed with geometric forms that evoke the pyramids in the backdrop, the museum invites visitors to journey through ancient Egypt’s 3,000-year history, starting with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 B.C. and ending with the Roman conquest in 30 B.C. The Romans overthrew Cleopatra and ruled as conquerors, marking an end to history’s longest empire.

“The main galleries at the GEM offer an extraordinary journey through Egypt’s rich history, providing visitors with an in-depth understanding of how one of the world’s greatest civilizations lived, ruled, and believed. Each gallery invites visitors to step into the daily lives and spiritual realms of the ancient Egyptians,” said Eltayeb Abbas, assistant minister of tourism and antiquities for archaeological affairs at the GEM, in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly.

The galleries are categorized according to three themes — religion, kingship, and society — and divided into historical eras: Predynastic, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the Late Kingdom, Ptolemaic (Greek) Egypt, and the Roman period.

Anticipation surrounds the New Kingdom galleries of King Tutankhamun, which have yet to open. It will mark the first time all 5,000 artifacts excavated from the infamous tomb of the king will be displayed together in a single location, including his iconic golden funerary mask. The discovery of his tomb in 1922 set a major turning point in Egyptology, due to the cache of gilded treasures that tomb raiders hadn’t discovered.

Construction on the museum began in 2005, yet years of economic instability, political turmoil, and COVID-19 delayed development. But this tumultuous journey, rife with the problems of the modern era, is coming to an end. A new chapter is opening, and ancient Egypt is coming to life once more.

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