Grand Egyptian Museum opens, Tutankhamun’s tomb is on display

Egypt has officially opened a modern cultural highlight near the Pyramid of Khufu in Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Described as the world’s largest archaeological museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is filled with approximately 100,000 artifacts covering approximately 7,000 years of Egyptian history, from the pre-dynastic era to the Greek and Roman periods.

Prominent Egyptologists claim that the establishment of this institution intensified demand for the return of major Egyptian antiquities stored in other countries, including the famous Rosetta Stone displayed in the British Museum.

GEM’s main attraction is that for the first time since its discovery by British Egyptologist Howard Carter, the entire contents of the boy king Tutankhamun’s complete tomb are on display together. These include Tutankhamun’s ornate golden mask, throne, and chariot.

“Since the tomb was discovered in 1922, about 1,800 pieces out of a total of more than 5,500 artifacts inside the tomb have been on display, so we had to think about how we could show him in a different way,” said Dr. Tarek Tawfik, president of the International Association of Egyptologists and former head of GEM.

“The idea was to display the complete tomb, which means there’s nothing left in storage, nothing left in other museums, and it’s a complete experience the way Howard Carter had it 100 years ago.”

Costing around $1.2 billion (£910 million, €1.1 billion), the vast museum complex is expected to attract up to 8 million visitors a year, giving a major boost to tourism in Egypt, which has been hit by the regional crisis.

“We hope that the Grand Egyptian Museum will usher in a new golden age of Egyptology and cultural tourism,” says Ahmed Seddik, a guide next to the pyramids on the Giza plateau and an aspiring Egyptologist.

With the exception of the Tutankhamun exhibit and a new display of Khufu’s 4,500-year-old funerary ship (one of the oldest and best-preserved vessels of antiquity), most of the galleries on site have been open to the public since last year.

“I have organized so many museum tours even though the museums are only partially open,” says Ahmed. “Now it will reach the pinnacle of its glory. When the Tutankhamun collection is revealed, you can imagine the whole world will come back because this is the iconic pharaoh, the most famous king of all antiquity.”

“It’s definitely a must-see,” said Spanish tourist Raúl, who is awaiting the official opening on November 4.

Sam from London, who is touring Egypt, said: “We can’t wait to go and check out all the Egyptian antiquities.” “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Another British tourist said he had previously seen Tutankhamun’s exhibits at the neoclassical Egyptian Museum in busy Tahrir Square.

“The old museum was quite disorganized and a bit chaotic,” she says. “I hope the Grand Museum will be much easier to visit and get more out of it.”

The new museum is massive, measuring 500,000 square meters (5.4 m sq ft), the size of 70 football fields. The exterior is covered with translucent alabaster cut into triangles with hieroglyphs and pyramid-shaped openings.

Among GEM’s notable works are a 3,200-year-old 16-metre-long suspended obelisk and an 11-metre-tall colossal statue of the powerful pharaoh Ramses II. This impressive statue was moved from near Cairo Train Station in 2006 in complex operations to prepare for the new institution.

The grand staircase is lined with statues of other ancient kings and queens, and the upper floor offers a perfect view of the Giza Pyramids through huge windows.

The museum was first proposed in 1992 during President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, and construction began in 2005. Estimates suggest that it now took nearly as long to complete as the Great Pyramid.

The project has been hit by the financial crisis, the 2011 Arab Spring that ousted Mubarak and years of chaos, the COVID-19 pandemic and regional wars.

“It’s been my dream. I’m so happy that this museum is finally opening!” Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s long-time Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, told the BBC: The veteran archaeologist said it shows that Egyptians are equal to foreign Egyptologists when it comes to excavations, preserving monuments and curating museums.

“Now I want two things: firstly, that museums stop buying stolen artifacts, and secondly, I need three objects to return: the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, the Zodiac from the Louvre and the bust of Nefertiti from Berlin.”

Dr Hawass started an online petition calling for the repatriation of all three items, garnering hundreds of thousands of signatures.

The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphs. It was discovered by the French and confiscated by the British as a war trophy. A French team cut the Dendera Zodiac, an ancient Egyptian celestial map, from the Temple of Hathor in Upper Egypt in 1821. Egypt has accused German archaeologists of smuggling out of the country a colorfully painted bust of Nefertiti, the wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, more than a century ago.

“Just as Egypt has given many gifts to the world, we need three things to make us feel good about these three countries,” Dr. Hawass said.

Another leading Egyptologist, Dr. Monica Hanna, labeled the same objects “seized under colonialist pretexts” as those that must be repatriated. She adds, “GEM sends the message that Egypt has done its homework very well in officially requesting the artifacts.”

The British Museum told the BBC that it had “never received an official request from the Egyptian government for the return or loan of the Rosetta Stone.”

Egypt Egyptologists are excited that the new museum will become a center for academic research and drive new discoveries.

Egyptian conservators already based there have painstakingly restored Tutankhamun’s belongings, including his impressive armor made of fabric and leather. According to Egyptian law, such restorations can only be done by Egyptians.

“Colleagues from all over the world are in awe of the fantastic conservation work that has been done so far,” Dr Tawfik said, adding that the entire project was a source of national pride. “We exhibit not only ancient Egyptian history but also modern Egypt, because that is where this museum was built.”