The world's largest museum will open in Giza, surpassing the Louvre in Paris in terms of number of exhibits

Cairo, November 1 - The Grand Egyptian Museum will officially open today near the pyramids of Giza. The monumental $1 billion building, which took more than two decades to build, is set to be the largest museum in the world. With more than 50,000 exhibits, it will surpass even the Louvre in Paris, which houses around 35,000 works.

The complex was designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects. The triangular glass facade refers to the nearby pyramids. In the spacious atrium, visitors will be greeted by a monumental granite statue of Pharaoh Ramesses II. This 3,200-year-old and 11-meter-high statue previously stood on a roundabout in front of Cairo's main train station.

The museum covers an area of ​​24,000 square meters and, in addition to exhibition spaces, also includes a children's museum, conference and education centers, a shopping area and a restoration workshop. Many of the exhibits were transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, while others come from recent archaeological discoveries, such as the necropolis at Saqqara, a complex of pyramids and tombs located about 22 kilometers south of the new museum.

The new museum includes two exhibition halls dedicated to 5,000 artifacts from King Tutankhamun’s collection. The entire collection will be on display for the first time since 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in Luxor.

WT.24