Largest museum dedicated to Ancient Egypt to open on 3/7

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the largest museum dedicated to this ancient civilization, will open on July 3 in Cairo. In a space of 500 square meters, the institution will have 100 thousand artifacts, although it will not bring any treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun, to which a separate pavilion will be dedicated.

According to Tarek El Awadi, former director of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Tutankhamun's mask could remain in its old headquarters, but "in the new museum, it will be in a huge space, inside an exclusive pavilion, worthy of its beauty and value."

But the GEM will welcome the public with the gigantic statue of Ramses II, the pharaoh with the longest reign in the history of Ancient Egypt, with a reign of 75 years. Measuring 12 meters high and weighing 83 tons of granite, the piece was discovered in 1820 by the Italian explorer and Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Caviglia in the Great Temple of Ptah, near Memphis, the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom.

The museum is located near the Pyramid Complex and the Great Sphinx of Giza, which can be glimpsed from inside the GEM through a glass wall that virtually connects the museum to the site.

At the same time, a bridge is under construction to connect the pyramids to the GEM, both close to Giza airport and a new hotel complex that is poised to become a major tourist destination, relieving congestion in the city center.