Egypt is preparing to inaugurate its new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in an official ceremony after multiple delays.
Construction began in 2005, and the museum entered a partial trial opening phase in 2024. The official inauguration, originally scheduled for July 3, 2025, was postponed to the last quarter of the year due to regional conflicts.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has endorsed the GEM as a national landmark meant to showcase Egypt's heritage on the world stage, especially that of Ancient Egypt, which has captivated the world for centuries, with monumental collections from the Pharaonic era displayed in institutions such as the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York among others.
"The Grand Museum is a milestone shift in the world [of] museums, not only in Egypt, because it is the largest museum for a single civilization, which is the Pharaonic civilization," El-Sisi said in December 2024.
The museum's centerpiece is the collection of Tutankhamun, featuring his ceremonial chair and gilded canopic shrine, among 100,000 artifacts from ancient Egyptian civilization spanning the Pharaonic, Greek, and Roman eras.
The satellite images below show the progress made on the museum over the past decade:
Located beside the Pyramids of Giza, the museum spans 500,000 square meters, according to the State Information Service website. Artifacts are not showcased in a conventional behind-the-glass manner but rather in an integrated display combining digital technologies and interactive media, it added.
Part of a broader redevelopment of the plateau, it underscores the country's ambition to reclaim a tourist profile, after years of political and economic setbacks. Construction was halted by events like the 2011 Arab Spring and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Egyptian government launched an urban development plan to clear and upgrade the area around the site, also targeting the regulation of camel and horse-riding businesses, particularly in the Nazlet El-Semman area, where residents had filed court complaints of forced evictions and inadequate compensation, a local rights group said.
GEM was established with assistance from the Japanese government through loans and technical expertise.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, on October 24, as quoted by Sada El-Balad: "To say that the Grand Egyptian Museum is Egypt's gift to the world is no exaggeration, for the legacy of ancient Egyptian civilization constitutes a global heritage in accordance with UNESCO's definitions of cultural and natural world heritage."
GEM CEO Ahmed Ghoneim said Sunday, as quoted by Al-Masry Al-Youm: "The world will be amazed by the museum's opening...Its architecture is magnificent, as if it represents Egypt's fourth pyramid, and its collections, combined with the fact that it is the largest museum in the world dedicated to ancient Egyptian civilization and the largest by area, all carry another dimension that will be revealed during the inauguration ceremony."
The museum's opening ceremony is scheduled for November 1, with invitations extended to world leaders.