The Grand Egyptian Museum Opens Its Doors at Giza
After two decades of construction, the Grand Egyptian Museum was formally inaugurated on 1 November, beside the Pyramids of Giza. For the first time, Tutankhamun's entire treasure is displayed together.
On Saturday evening, 1 November 2025, a spectacular ceremony of light, music and fireworks lit up the desert plateau of Giza, just outside Cairo. Heads of state, royalty and guests from around the world gathered as Egypt formally inaugurated the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), a vast new home for the treasures of ancient Egypt, built within sight of the Great Pyramids. The museum is due to open fully to the public this week. It has been described as the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation.
Two decades in the making
The idea of a new museum was born from a simple problem. The famous Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, central Cairo, opened in 1902, was overflowing. Its galleries were crowded, and many objects were stored out of sight. Egypt needed a modern museum that could display and protect its heritage.
An international architectural competition was held in the early 2000s, and the winning design came from the Dublin-based firm Heneghan Peng. Construction began in 2005. The project faced long delays, caused by political upheaval after 2011, financial difficulties and the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan provided major loans and technical support, especially for conservation. The total cost has been reported at around US$1 billion.
Parts of the museum, including the main galleries, opened for limited trial visits in 2024 and 2025, before the official inauguration this month.
A building facing the pyramids
The museum stands about two kilometres from the Pyramids of Giza. Its huge, angled façade of translucent stone is designed to align with views of the pyramids, and a new walkway links the two sites. The permanent exhibition space covers some 24,000 square metres, and the museum is expected to hold tens of thousands of objects on display, with many more in its storage and conservation centres.
Ramesses at the entrance
Visitors entering the museum are greeted in the great atrium by a colossal statue of Ramesses II, more than 11 metres tall and weighing around 83 tonnes. For decades, it stood in a traffic-filled square outside Cairo's main railway station. In 2006, it was moved to the Giza site, and in 2018, it was transported to its permanent place in the museum's atrium.
Behind it rises the Grand Staircase, lined with statues of kings, queens and gods, leading visitors upward towards views of the pyramids. Ramesses II, one of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, also built the great temples of Abu Simbel, which we described in our story on Abu Simbel.
Tutankhamun's treasure, complete
The highlight for many visitors will be the Tutankhamun galleries. When the British archaeologist Howard Carter opened the young king's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, he found more than 5,000 objects: golden shrines, chariots, jewellery, furniture, weapons, clothing, games, and the famous gold funerary mask.
Until now, only part of this collection had been on display at any time, with much of it in storage. At the GEM, the entire collection is shown together for the first time since its discovery, in two large halls. Conservation teams spent years restoring objects, some of which had never been studied in detail.
Khufu's boat and more
Other treasures include the solar boat of Khufu, the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid. The boat, made of cedar wood around 4,500 years ago and buried beside the pyramid, was discovered in 1954. It was moved to the museum in 2021 in a carefully planned operation.
The museum's main galleries cover Egyptian history from prehistoric times to the Greek and Roman periods, organised by themes such as kingship, society and beliefs.
A museum of research and conservation
The GEM is not only a display space. It includes one of the largest conservation centres in the Middle East, with laboratories for restoring stone, wood, textiles, papyrus, metals and human remains, as well as research facilities, a children's museum and educational spaces. Egyptian conservators have been trained for the project, building national expertise.
Questions and debates
Like many great museums, the GEM raises questions. Some observers have discussed whether the high ticket prices will make it difficult for many Egyptians to visit. Others note that it strengthens Egypt's call for the return of important objects held in foreign museums, such as the Rosetta Stone in London and the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin. Egyptian archaeologists and officials have argued that Egypt now has world-class facilities to care for them.
Why it matters
The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum is a major moment for Africa's heritage. It gives the treasures of one of the world's oldest civilisations a home worthy of them, built by Egypt and placed beside the pyramids that have stood for more than four thousand years. It also reminds the world that ancient Egypt is part of African history, and that its story continues to be told by Egyptians themselves.
Further reading
- Al Jazeera — Egypt unveils Grand Egyptian Museum dedicated to its ancient civilisation (1 November 2025)
- NBC News — Decades in the making, Egypt's Grand Museum opens with a huge spectacle
- UNESCO — Grand Egyptian Museum
- Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun (Thames & Hudson, rev. ed., 2022)
