Grand Egyptian Museum to be inaugurated in 2020
The most awaited Grand Egyptian Museum is getting ready to be inaugurated by 2020. The museum is intended to showcase Egypt’s ancient treasures while drawing tourists to help fund its future development.
The project has been delays due to various reasons and now the works are progressing with accelerated pace to be inaugurated by 2020. Meanwhile, the costs of the project has soared from an initial USD 650 million to over USD 1 billion, with most of the financing coming from Japan.
Japan is not only one of the museum’s major financial partners, it is also playing a key role in the preservation and restoration of Egypt’s antiquities, many of which are in the process of being transported from the old museum which is located in the center of Cairo.
The museum will be a unique place with around 100,000 artifacts, over 50,000 square metres. Tourists can admire for the very first time, in its entirety, the fabulous Tutankhamun treasure trove discovered in 1922. Tutankhamun, was the pharaoh who reigned over the kingdom of Egypt during its golden age more than 3000 years ago.
It is the latest mega project to be backed by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who is wagering that massive investments in infrastructure will revive an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 uprising.
Restoration works in progress
“It is a place where you can linger to enjoy ancient Egypt,” said project director Tarek Tawfik on a recent tour of the site, which will also include a conference center, a cinema, 28 shops, 10 restaurants and a boutique hotel. Giant windows open onto the 5,000 year old pyramids, and the museum will feature an intact wooden ship and a towering statue of Ramses II.
Tourists are gradually returning to Egypt, but the industry has yet to recover from the 2011 uprising, which toppled long time autocrat Hosni Mubarak and ushered in a period of instability, culminating in the military overthrow of the country’s first freely elected president, an Islamist whose brief rule sparked mass protests.
Restoration works
Egypt’s pharaonic heritage remains a major draw and Tawfik expects the museum to attract eight million people a year once it opens. An estimated eight million tourists will have visited Egypt in 2018, an increase from previous years but well below a peak of 14.7 million before the 2011 uprising.
“Today, despite all the increases in costs and the floating of the Egyptian pound, it is quite amazing that the project will be completed, thanks to good management and value engineering,” said Tawfik.
Rania A Al Mashat, Tourism Minister of Egypt has visited the conservation center on the new year day to witness the progress of the restoration works.
Tourism minister Rania A Al Mashat during her visit to the museum
“On the 1st day of 2019, I spent a few hours with Dr. Tarek Tawfik & some of the great 100 Egyptian specialists at the GEM Conservation Center. Hard work, dedication & a lot of passion are put into the restoration of Egypt’s ancient treasures to be displayed in 2020. A must see,” tweeted Rania.