The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum has been postponed to 2023.
At the same time, it is noted that the museum is already accepting the first visitors and will be open to small groups and some business and cultural events until the official opening.
The Grand Egyptian Museum is located two kilometers from the Pyramids of Giza. The museum complex covers an area of 500,000 square meters. Here you can see the largest and most complete collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world – about 100 thousand different exhibits, most of which have never been exhibited before.
In addition to the six main galleries, the new complex will include two temporary exhibition halls, a children’s museum, a library, a cinema, a ballroom, a conference center, administrative offices, restaurants and cafes, shops, and more than 110,000 square meters of gardens and spaces.
The central gem of the museum’s collection is about 5,000 items from the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, which will be presented for the first time since Howard Carter discovered the tomb in 1922. Golden masks, sarcophagi, golden beds and chariots, mother-of-pearl jewelry inlaid with precious stones: the pharaoh’s treasures will be exhibited on such a scale for the first time.
Also, the famous solar boat, which belonged to Pharaoh Khufu, which carried souls to the afterlife, will be exhibited at GEM. It is 42 meters long, 4,600 years old, and is the largest wooden ship in the world.
Note that the initial estimated cost of the Grand Egyptian Museum was 550 million dollars. Due to revolutionary changes in the country, the project budget has grown significantly and reached $1 billion.