Grand Egyptian Museum: A museum that’s worth the wait

Christina Khalil

It was the museum that few believed would ever be built. The foundation stone was laid in 2002, but 23 years and three presidents later, amidst a revolution, soaring costs, a fire, and even a global pandemic, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) was finally inaugurated in November 2025.

“It’s taken nearly as long to complete as the Great Pyramid of Giza itself,” our guide reminds us.

What strikes you first is the scale. The museum stands in Egyptian alabaster, glass and steel across the vast desert plateau. In the distance, the Obelisk of Ramses II rises against the Cairo skyline. Together, they form a gateway to the Great Sphinx of Giza and the pyramids beyond.

But the building is more than an architectural masterpiece. It marks a shift in how Egypt presents its 7,000-year-old civilisation, both to the world and to itself.

The excitement in the air is unmistakable. “It’s the greatest thing they’ve built since the pyramids,” a fellow traveller says as we walk to the entrance.

Stepping inside GEM

Inside the atrium, that ambition is reaffirmed. A colossal Ramses II statue looms into view, opposite the statues of a Ptolemaic king and queen recovered from the sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion.

The 36-foot-tall Ramses II statue was originally erected in Memphis. Later, it was moved to Ramses Square in central Cairo, where it stood for the next five decades. In 2006, it was transported to the new museum in a grand procession, as crowds lined the streets to watch its journey.

The facade of the museum in Giza. 

It became a powerful symbol of the nationwide effort behind the museum itself.

Yet it is the grand staircase that steals the spotlight. Lined with over 60 monumental statues, it is divided into four themes, showcasing royal power, religious architecture, the relationship between rulers and gods, and the journey to eternity.

Among the treasures are the seated statue of King Thutmose III, the Sphinx of Amenemhat III, the obelisk tip of Queen Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III beside Re-Horakhty, and the trinity of Ramses II with the god Ptah and the goddess Sekhmet.
At the top, a vast window frames the Great Pyramid of Khufu itself. That is our first view of the pyramids, which remain in the background of the 100,000 artefacts displayed here. It forms a visual bridge connecting the museum to the past.

Then the galleries begin.

History by the gallery

Given its immense scale, the museum has opened in stages. Twelve galleries currently display exhibits from 700,000 BCE to the 4th century AD, weaving together themes of society, kingship and belief through stories of daily life, rulership and religion. Visitors encounter everything from Stone Age tools and the haunting gaze of Scribe Nefer to the royal treasures of Queen Hetepheres, the fully recreated tomb chapel of Khnumhotep II, and a colossal Hatshepsut statue in the corridors.
Yet the greatest anticipation surrounds the galleries dedicated to Tutankhamun and the Solar Boats of Khufu.

For the first time, the entire collection of more than 5,000 objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb will be displayed together. Many of them, including Tutankhamun’s iconic death mask, coffins and sarcophagi, military chariots and throne chair, were previously displayed at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Tahrir Square.
Some had not been displayed since their discovery by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

They are being restored in the museum’s Conservation Centre, now regarded as among the most advanced archaeological restoration facilities in the world.

It is hoped that the country’s many treasures, currently displayed in museums around the world, will someday return here as well.

Yet the museum is not only about preservation. It is a cultural campus too. Restaurants, gardens, a cinema hall, a children’s museum and a specialised Egyptology library are part of the complex.

We stop at Zooba, a restaurant that has brought Cairo street food into the museum. Over hawawshi, flatbread stuffed with spiced minced meat, ancient and modern Egypt meet at our table.

Expected to host 15,000 visitors daily, the Grand Egyptian Museum is today the largest archaeological museum in the world. But it will not replace the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Tahrir Square or the newer National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. Both will continue to present Egypt’s history. The GEM, however, creates an overarching, modern layer that connects the other two.

As India’s own Yuge Yugeen Bharat Museum prepares to open to the world in 2026, presenting 5,000 years of Indian history from the Indus Valley Civilisation to modern India, it is a reminder that nations everywhere are rethinking how they tell the story of their past.

It may even surpass the Grand Egyptian Museum as the largest museum devoted to a single civilisation. But in ambition and storytelling, it could learn from what Egypt has achieved here.