Cairo officially inaugurates on Saturday with great fanfare, after years of delay, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), a pharaonic showcase of ancient civilization, with a sumptuous evening intended to stimulate tourism.
The area around the museum located near the pyramids of Giza was cordoned off early Saturday morning in preparation for the grand ceremony.
Nearly 80 official delegations are expected for the ceremony, which is due to begin at 7:30 p.m. local time (5:30 p.m. GMT), half “led by kings, princes, heads of state or government,” according to Egyptian Foreign Affairs.
As a prelude to the expected spectacle, the colossal facade of the museum, located on a slope overlooking the Giza plateau and its pyramids, has been illuminated in recent nights.
The construction of this building of almost half a million square meters, with financial and technical support from Japan, cost more than a billion dollars and required twenty years of titanic work.
Its star attraction is the treasure of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 in an inviolate tomb in the Valley of the Kings, in Upper Egypt, with its nearly 5,000 funerary objects, brought together for the first time in the same space.
In total, the GEM houses more than 100,000 remains, half of which will be exhibited, the largest collection in the world dedicated to a single civilization, which has seen thirty dynasties over 5,000 years of history.
When it opens to the public on Tuesday, visitors will be welcomed in the immense atrium by the museum’s most monumental statue – 83 tonnes of granite, eleven meters high – representing Ramses II, the pharaoh who reigned over Egypt for 66 years more than 3,000 years ago.
Unlike the outdated and cramped century-old museum in the center of the Egyptian capital, the GEM offers, within its sand-colored stone walls, immersive galleries, precision lighting, virtual reality exhibitions and even a children’s museum.
Archeology enthusiasts will be able to follow, through a bay window, the work of the conservation laboratory to restore a 4,500-year-old solar boat, found buried near the pyramid of Khufu.
Obstacles
After several postponements linked to the Arab Spring, then the Covid-19 pandemic, the official opening of the museum was set for the beginning of July.
But the Egyptian authorities preferred to postpone it at the last minute due to regional tensions to give the event “the global scale it deserves”.
Observers warn that its long-term success will depend on stable tourism and a strong supporting infrastructure.
Egyptian archaeologist Hussein Bassir said the museum’s future depends on “regular maintenance to preserve the building and its treasures.”
« If current momentum is not maintained, the museum could quickly lose its appeal and visitor numbers could drop“, he told AFP.
Egypt’s tourism sector, a vital source of foreign exchange and jobs, has been shaken repeatedly over the past decade and a half, from the 2011 uprising to the waves of unrest and sporadic terrorist attacks that followed.
Elhamy al-Zayat, former president of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, told AFP that the museum is part of a broader plan to transform the entire Giza plateau.
« Egypt has created a whole new cultural and tourist zone ” on the plateau, with a nearby airport and improved visitor facilities at the pyramids, he said.
The roads leading to the plateau have been renovated, a digital ticketing system has been introduced and air-conditioned electric buses now operate in front of the pyramids.
In recent years, tourism has shown signs of recovery, with 15 million visitors to Egypt in the first nine months of 2025, generating $12.5 billion, an increase of 21% from the previous year.
Officials estimate that the GEM alone could attract up to seven million visitors per year, which could bring the total number of visitors to 30 million by 2030.
However, some observers remain cautious, saying regional instability, including ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, as well as economic pressures, risk undermining the museum’s potential to provide a major boost to Egypt’s tourism sector.
© Agence France-Presse
