A first-time guide to the Grand Egyptian Museum

24.11.2024 - 10:53 / lonelyplanet.com

Nov 22, 2024 • 8 min read

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) finally opened to the public on October 16, 2024. 

Covering an area of 500,000 square metres (5,381,955 sq ft – or about 70 soccer fields) this is the world’s largest archaeological museum complex dedicated to a single civilization.

Fronted by a spectacular alabaster and glass facade, the complex is decorated with different sizes and colors of triangles – an ode to Ancient Egypt. Even the stones, over which water tinkles in the shallow rectangular pools that decorate the vast esplanade between the ticket office and the main building, are pyramidal. 

The top of the building lies level with the Pyramids of Giza plateau and descends to the Nile Valley where the principal entrance for visitors lies.

The GEM complex is open every day from 8:30am to 6:00pm. The galleries, however, open at 9:00am and shut at 5:00pm.

The building was designed by an Irish firm, Heneghan Peng Architects, who beat 1,557 competitors from 82 countries to win the Egyptian Ministry of Culture’s 2003 competition to create a museum complex to house, display and preserve the tens of thousands of ancient treasures in its trust.

Construction began in 2005 but the 2011 Arab Spring brought work to a halt throughout the three years of political instability that followed. Tourist numbers dropped sharply during this period resulting in a corresponding drop in income for the government. But from 2014 onwards work was able to resume on the project, with considerable financial and technical help from Japan. And now, finally, it is open.

You may hear that the GEM is only “partially open” and that’s because the Tutankhamen treasures have not yet been moved into their two galleries from the historic Egyptian Museum downtown and the two “Solar” boats are not yet in their assigned places. But apart from these, the museum’s 14 other galleries are open and the 3200-yr old, 82-tonne statue of Ramses II can finally welcome visitors into the vast atrium, six years after he arrived there himself!

For the moment the only way to get there is by Uber or taxi, or by hiring a driver or joining a tour. 

Sometime in the future there will be a metro stop at the site which will make it easy to reach from downtown Cairo. For the time being it’s a bit tricky getting here by public transport. 

I tried by taking the metro to Cairo University (the closest stop) and from there I had to walk along a busy highway to the main University gate for an Uber to find me and drive me the remaining 18km (11 miles) to the GEM. 

This trip cost me LE120 (€2.30 or US$2.43) and probably wouldn’t have cost much more for the extra 6km (4 miles) from the city centre! Don’t even try taking one of the local microbuses unless you speak Egyptian.

Em