Grand Egyptian Museum next to pyramids of Giza billed as world’s largest archaeological facility for single civilisation
A vast $1bn museum billed as the world’s largest archaeological facility dedicated to a single civilisation will open outside Cairo on Saturday, after countless delays over the course of its two-decade construction.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, located a mile away from the pyramids of Giza, covers an area of 470,000 sq metres. The complex was announced in 1992 but it was not until 2005 that construction began. Some areas of the museum opened in a soft launch in 2024.
More than 50,000 items will be housed in the museum, including an 83-ton, 3,200-year-old colossus of Ramesses II and a 4,500-year-old boat belonging to Khufu, the pharaoh credited with building the pyramids.
The museum includes 24,000 sq metres of permanent exhibition space, a children’s museum, conference and educational facilities, a commercial area and a large conservation centre. The 12 main galleries, which opened last year, exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, organised by era and theme.
