CAIRO – Prime ministers, presidents, and royalty from around the globe gathered in Cairo on Saturday for the dazzling inauguration of Egypt’s long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), a $1 billion project built near the Giza Pyramids to showcase one of the world’s richest collections of antiquities.
The ceremony marked the completion of a two-decade effort repeatedly delayed by political unrest, the Arab Spring, the pandemic, and regional conflicts. “We’ve all dreamed of this project and whether it would really come true,” said Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, describing the museum as “a gift from Egypt to the whole world from a country whose history goes back more than 7,000 years.”
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President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended the event, which featured fireworks, lasers, dancers in pharaonic costumes, and an international orchestra. “By opening the museum, Egypt is writing a new chapter in the story of this ancient nation’s present and future,” Sisi said. Dignitaries included Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The museum’s centerpiece is the full Tutankhamun collection — the boy-king’s golden mask, throne, sarcophagus, and thousands of artefacts displayed together for the first time. A 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II dominates the entrance hall.
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Designed by Ireland’s Heneghan Peng Architects and largely funded by Japanese development loans, the 120-acre complex stands as one of Egypt’s most ambitious cultural undertakings. Officials hope GEM will boost tourism and reshape perceptions of Egypt’s stewardship of its heritage — after past controversies at the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, including thefts during the 2011 uprising and damage to Tutankhamun’s mask.
“The GEM is not a replica of the Louvre or the British Museum. It is Egypt’s response to both,” wrote Al-Ahram Weekly, calling it “a philosophy as much as it is a building.”