The Egyptian government recently announced that the much-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum will finally open its doors to millions of tourists, culture vultures and history boffins in the last months of 2020.
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has been under construction for many years, with delays prolonging its completion.
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The new museum is located in the Giza Governorate, a 19-kilometre drive from Cairo’s (original) Egyptian Museum. The two museums lie on opposite sides of the Nile River. Many of the GEM’s artefacts have been housed in the Cairo museum, but nearly 50,000 artefacts have already been relocated back to the new GEM.
The Grand Egyptian Museum is two kilometres from those famous ancient wonders – the pyramids of Giza.
Expected to house the world’s largest antiquities collection belonging to a single civilisation, for the first time, the Grand Egyptian Museum will be exhibiting all of King Tutankhamun’s burial treasures together.
While the government has stated that the museum project is 90% complete, it’s still unknown when the museum will officially open. However, the museum’s ticket prices for entry have been announced. Priced in Egyptian pounds, foreigners will pay LE400 (R360), and students receive a half-price discount.
According to Egypt Independent, the Grand Egyptian Museum is expected to attract five-million visitors annually.
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