The Great New Egyptian Museum
The Grand Egyptian Museum is one of many things to do in Cairo. Cairo is one of the most popular places to visit in Egypt. The Pyramids of Giza and the Egyptian Museum are the best places in Cairo to learn about pharaohs. The Egyptian Museum as it is now is small, and it has a lot of objects on loan from other museums. The current museum, which was built in 1902, has almost 120,000 pharaonic monuments and can’t hold any more ancient artefacts or monuments.
So, Egypt needed a second, more modern, and bigger museum to show off its treasures and monuments. They started making plans for The Grand Egyptian Museum in 1992. So, they started to build a new museum that would hold 150,000 Egyptian artefacts.
The Grand Egyptian Museum is about 2 km from the Pyramids of Giza and 20 km from Cairo’s city centre. It is thought to be one of the most beautiful buildings of the 20th century.
The Grand Egyptian Museum’s past
The Grand Egyptian Museum was started by former President Hosni Mubarak on January 5, 2002. The big statue of Ramses II was moved from Ramses Square in the centre of Cairo to the Giza Complex on August 25, 2006. In 2010, this 3200-year-old statue of Ramses II was fixed up and put on display at The Grand Egyptian Museum.
In August 2008, the engineers gave the Egyptian Ministry of Culture more than 5,000 drawings of their plans. In October 2008, he started advertising the job and then started digging at the site of The Grand Egyptian Museum.
In September 2009, it was said that the project would be done in 2013. However, the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 pushed the date back to 2020, and covid-19 will make the opening date move to 2021.
How the Grand Egyptian Museum was paid for
El GME will cost $550 million to build. Egypt will pay $100 million, Japan will pay $300 million, and a fundraising company will pay $150 million. On January 7, 2002, the GME design competition was made public. More than 1,557 applications came in from 82 different countries. In the end, the contract was made with a Dublin company called Heneghan Peng. It was worth $ 250,000.
How the Grand Egyptian Museum was Built
Modern technology was used to build the Grand Egyptian Museum. It’s 800 m long and 40 m high, and it looks like a bevelled triangle plan. It is 50 m higher than where the Nile River flows. It takes up 50 hectares of land. It is between Cairo and Giza, where there are three pyramids.
1- Stone is used for the walls and front of the building. The Cheops and Menkaure pyramids are in line with the northern and southern walls. To get to the exhibition areas, you have to go up a large staircase. There are 4 exhibition areas, each of which focuses on a different time period;
2- The first is where things from the prehistoric, predynastic, an old kingdom, and first intermediate periods are found.
3- The second is where things from the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period are kept.
4- Third, where things from the new kingdom are.
5- The fourth one has things from the third intermediate period to the Greco-Roman period.
Different places
1- There’s a 250-seat 3D theatre with a 3D screen.
2- There are 10 places to eat and 3 parks.
3- A library that is all about Egypt in the past.
4- There are three galleries where a conference centre and an educational centre are located.
5- There are virtual galleries, activities, and workshops at this children’s museum.
6- A place for restoration and preservation with specialised labs.
The Grand Egyptian Museum’s displays
Egypt has more than 155,000 monuments from different times in the past. More than 20,000 things were never shown to the public. Also from Ancient Egypt, there are 45 thousand works of art and 87 statues. The most important thing is the things that were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb. There were almost 5,000 of them.
Also, the Grand Statue of Ramses II is 11 m tall and weighs 80 tonnes. It is 3200 years old and has been there for that long. There are statues of the gods Ptah, Sekhmet, and Hathor, as well as the kings Amenophis III, Senusert III, and Queen Hatshepsut.
The Big Egyptian Museum
The New Museum is more than just a museum. It is also a place where people study history and archaeology. It can hold up to 15,000 people every day. The current museum is in a unique spot in the middle of Cairo, surrounded by high-end hotels, churches, and mosques. The new site of The Grand Egyptian Museum is close to the Pyramids of Giza, so you can also visit the rest of the Giza complex and its attractions.
Egypt via travel can help you have a great trip to Egypt.
Check out our Egypt travel packages if you want to see the “cradle of civilization” up close. Also, check out the deals on Nile cruises and enjoy your time in the land of the Pharaohs.
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