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\nThe Obelisk of Ramses II is pictured before the facade and entrance of the new Grand Egyptian Museum<\/p>\n
After years of delays, Cairo has opened the Grand Egyptian Museum – a long-awaited, billion-dollar showcase of pharaonic grandeur that Egypt hopes will help revive tourism and boost its troubled economy.<\/p>\n
Seventy-nine delegations, including 39 heads of state and government, attended the ceremony.<\/p>\n
An imitation of the nearby pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the museum’s triangular glass structure was designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects.<\/p>\n
Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Spain and Denmark will be among those sending representatives, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Minister of State Noel Grealish said he was “delighted to represent the Irish Government at the official opening of the Grand Architectural Museum.”<\/p>\n
“I am particularly proud that this spectacular museum was designed by an Irish architectural firm, Heneghan Peng Architects – a renowned architectural practice based in Dublin. It has been under construction for 20 years and is located less than one kilometre from the pyramids.”<\/p>\n
Heneghan Peng Architects, led by Cork-born R\u00f3is\u00edn Heneghan and Taiwanese-American architect Shih-Fu Peng, won the international competition for the museum in 2003.<\/p>\n
Watch: State officials arrive for opening ceremony of Grand Egyptian Museum<\/p>\n
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In the nights leading up to the opening, shafts of light have illuminated both the pyramids and the museum’s colossal facade – a prelude to today’s spectacle.<\/p>\n
Set on a gentle slope overlooking the Giza Plateau, just beyond the shadow of the pyramids, the museum was built with major financial and technical support from Japan, and spreads across nearly half a million square metres.<\/p>\n
It houses more than 100,000 artefacts, half of which will be on display, making it the world’s largest collection devoted to a single civilisation, according to Egyptian officials.<\/p>\n
Inside, visitors will enter vast, light-filled halls with soaring ceilings and sand-coloured stone walls that echo the surrounding desert.<\/p>\n
At the centre of the main atrium stands an 83-tonne statue of Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt for 66 years and presided over its golden age.<\/p>\n
Unlike the cramped, century-old Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) features immersive galleries, precision lighting, virtual-reality exhibits and even a children’s museum.<\/p>\n
One highlight is a live conservation lab, visible through floor-to-ceiling glass, where visitors can watch restorers assembling a 4,500-year-old solar boat buried near Khufu’s pyramid, built to carry his soul across the sky with the sun god Ra.<\/p>\n
\nThe Obelisk of Ramses II is pictured before the facade and entrance of the new Grand Egyptian Museum<\/p>\n
The undisputed star of the show, however, is King Tutankhamun’s collection of more than 5,000 objects, many displayed together for the first time.<\/p>\n
Details of the boy pharaoh’s gold mask display remain under wraps.<\/p>\n
The museum opens to the public on Tuesday, showcasing thousands of funerary artefacts previously scattered across Egypt.<\/p>\n
More than two decades in the making, the GEM faced multiple hurdles, including political unrest, regional conflicts and the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Observers caution that its long-term success depends on stable tourism and strong supporting infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Egyptian archaeologist Hussein Bassir said the museum’s future hinges on “regular maintenance to preserve the building and its treasures”.<\/p>\n
“If the current momentum is not maintained, the museum could quickly lose its appeal and visitor numbers could drop,” he said.<\/p>\n
Egypt’s tourism sector, a vital source of foreign currency and jobs, has been repeatedly shaken over the past decade and a half, from the 2011 uprising to waves of unrest and sporadic terrorist attacks in the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Elhamy al-Zayat, former head of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, said the museum was part of a broader plan to transform the entire Giza Plateau.<\/p>\n
“Egypt has created an entirely new cultural and tourist zone” at the plateau, with a nearby airport and upgraded visitor facilities at the pyramids, he said.<\/p>\n
Roads leading to the plateau have been refurbished, digital ticketing introduced and air-conditioned electric buses now glide past the pyramids.<\/p>\n
In recent years, tourism has shown signs of recovery, with 15 million visitors travelling to Egypt in the first nine months of 2025 and generating $12.5 billion, up 21% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Officials believe the GEM alone could draw up to seven million visitors annually, potentially bringing total visitor numbers to 30 million by 2030.<\/p>\n
Yet some observers are cautious, saying regional instability, including the conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, as well as economic pressures, threaten to challenge the museum’s potential to deliver a major boost for Egypt’s tourism sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of delays, Cairo has opened the Grand Egyptian Museum – a long-awaited, billion-dollar showcase of pharaonic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-116637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}