The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza is soft opening to the public from tomorrow (16 October), according to local media.
The Egyptian Gazette reports that Egypt’s prime minister Mostafa Madbouly confirmed the news while speaking to press last week in Luxor.
The museum’s trial opening will include the main hall and other areas, Madbouly told reporters.
Philip Breckner, director of specialist tour operator Discover Egypt, told the Independent‘s travel podcast: “I’m hearing there will be a partial opening before the end of October.”
Trial opening of GEM in Giza
Via the Grand Egyptian Museum website, the institution “has begun a limited trial visits program for certain completed areas of the complex that are ready for the public to access and enjoy”.
The launch of the new museum comes 11 years later than the original proposed opening date due to logistical, political and financial delays.
When it fully opens, the Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation. It will house a collection of more than 100,000 artefacts across 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history.
Highlights include the Tutankhamun collection, which will have its own exhibition space to showcase all 5,600 objects retrieved from the pharaoh’s tomb. For now, this collection will remain in the existing Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square in central Cairo.
New space for ancient Egyptian history
Atef Moftah, general director of the Grand Egyptian Museum project, previously said the new institution will be “a gift to humanity”.
It will serve as “one house for all ancient Egyptian civilisation” and is “unique among all other museums”, he said.
“Once the museum is open for the whole world, all those who are interested in this subject will be amazed,” Moftah added.
Images courtesy of the Grand Egyptian Museum
