The glory of Egypt's long-awaited museum

An idea that took seed more than 30 years ago, and has been 21 years in the making, is finally ready to bear fruit. For 108 million Egyptians, the wait for the Grand Egyptian Museum – it is walking distance from the Giza pyramids – is finally over. It has taken two decades to construct the impressive Egyptian limestone facade, behind which are housed about 100,000 artefacts that date back to seven millennia of the country’s vast history.

The sense of national pride that Egyptians anywhere in the world feel is immense – evident too in the past weekend’s glittering opening ceremony that was attended by leaders, royalty and heads of states from around the world. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi said the museum, the world’s largest collection devoted to a single civilisation, opened a “new chapter” for the nation.

The entire tomb of Tutankhamun, including his throne, gold mask and chariots, will be on display, and could well be the most popular gallery when the museum opens its doors to the public on Tuesday and visitors entering the atrium take in the towering grandeur of the statue of Pharaoh Ramesses II.

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As a tourist destination, Egypt remains a timeless favourite. The number of visitors to the Arab world’s most populous country is only increasing, having jumped to 21 per cent more than pre-pandemic levels. Despite being in an unpredictable neighbourhood – in close proximity to Gaza, Israel and Yemen – last year Egypt drew 15.7 million tourists, who spent $15 billion, according to official reports, in a boon for its economy.

The entire tomb of Tutankhamun, including his throne, gold mask and chariots, will be on display, and could well be the most popular gallery when the museum opens

Now, with the opening of the world’s largest archaeological museum, tourists have an added reason to make their way to Cairo. While the artefacts on display goes back centuries, the advanced technology and multimedia presentations will be a magnet for a younger generation and could serve as a tool to draw them into tales of the origin of a civilisation.

The opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum has re-ignited the conversation on the issue of repatriating to Egypt its priceless cultural artefacts that were pillaged and now sit in the museums of western capitals. As previously reported in this paper, the British Museum alone has more than 100,000 items from Egypt and 170,000 from Mesopotamia, where several British archaeologists have helped themselves to the treasures of Babylon, Nineveh and Nimrud.

Visitors, especially those of Egyptian heritage and those living in the Middle East and Africa, should no longer have to travel to London to see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, or to Paris to see the Dendera Zodiac at the Louvre, or to Berlin’s Neues Museum to view the 3,000-year-old bust of Queen Nefertiti. These rarities, among others, were plundered from their home countries, some more than 200 years ago, and deserve pride of place in their original homes.

If, besides the boost it gives to Egyptian tourism and the economy, the museum can bring to the surface and help finally resolve discussions on where looted masterpieces truly belong, it will have served an even deeper cultural purpose.