The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)

 The museum was designed to be the largest museum of antiquities in the world, with an area of ​​117 acres of 500,000 meters, and it will contain more than 100,000 artifacts from the Pharaonic, Greek and Roman eras. More than 5 million visitors are expected annually. The museum will include a number of commercial and recreational service buildings, a center for ancient materials science and restoration, and a museum garden in which the trees that the ancient Egyptian knew would be planted.

The project, which costs $ 550 million, is implemented in three main phases. During 2010, the second phase of the project was opened, which includes a restoration center that includes a number of testing and analysis laboratories such as microbiology and scanning electron microscopy, in addition to maintenance and restoration laboratories such as the mummy maintenance lab and a laboratory. Timber, Stone Factory, Ceramic, Glass and Metal Factory.

The last stage – which is currently being implemented – will include the creation of museum galleries, the Museum of Learners, the Convention and Cinema Center, the Archaeological Library, and the Children’s Museum, and the fun will open The first of them is to display the holdings of King Tutankhamun, so that the final opening of the project will take place in November 2022. The visitor’s path to the museum begins with seeing the obelisk square, in which he displays the first obelisk hanging in the world and sees in front of it the majestic facade of the museum, “The Pyramids Wall” with a width of 600 meters and a height of 45 meters. It includes many halls, most notably the King Tutankhamun Hall, which includes the king’s treasures combined for the first time, a library of rare books and antique stores. And the conference building that includes a 3D hall, a cultural center, a main restaurant square, a commercial walkway and shops. As for the external squares, it includes the Sun Boat Museum, a group of restaurants and many gardens.

The Great is located a few miles west of Cairo, near the Pyramids of Giza. It is being built as the world’s largest museum of archeology, to accommodate 5 million visitors annually. In addition to the commercial and recreational services buildings, the restoration center and the museum park, in which he will plant trees that were known to the ancient Egyptian. Egypt has launched a campaign to finance the project, which is estimated to cost about $ 550 million, in which Japan will contribute $ 300 million in a soft loan, but the first attempt to raise the money needed to build this giant monument was represented in the new exhibition of Egyptian antiquities at the Art Museum in Los Angeles, USA American, under the slogan “Tutankhamun and the Pharaonic Golden Age”. The museum will house over 100,000 artifacts from the Pharaonic, Greek and Roman eras, which will give a huge boost to the tourism sector in Egypt.

The Design

Because the museum is located in front of the Pyramids of Giza, the facade is designed in the form of triangles, each range divided into smaller triangles in a symbolic frame of the pyramids, according to a mathematical theory of a Polish scientist talking about the endless division of the shape of the triangle.

Buidings

The museum buildings are located on an area of ​​100 thousand square meters, including 45 thousand meters for the museum display. The remaining area includes a library specializing in Egyptology, a conference center, a research center, restoration laboratories, a three-dimensional cinema, and places dedicated to serving visitors such as restaurants, and cloning shops Gifts, parking.

Restoration Center

It is located on an area of ​​32 thousand meters, it is located approximately 10 meters below the ground level, and a tunnel has been established between the museum’s restoration center through which the relics can be safely transported with a length of approximately 300 meters.
The restoration center includes 19 laboratories in which the various types of monuments are restored and restored to their natural form, including:
Ceramic, Glass and Metal Factory: for the restoration of utensils and statues made of inorganic materials.

• Woodworks Factory: for restoring artifacts made of wood, such as coffins, statues of all kinds, funerary furniture, wooden models, boats, tools, and wooden lights, “gods of conservation”.
  Stone Factory: for large stone artifacts for the restoration process.
• Microbiological laboratory: for determining the types of living organisms that cause damage, which facilitates the preparation of chemicals necessary to stop the growth of these organisms.
• Scanning electronic microscope laboratory: for the means of preparing samples and chemical components before sending the microbiology laboratory.
• The “human remains” mummy plant: for the restoration of mummies from birds, especially the birds of Abu Manjal, the god Horus, which is one of the idol pharaohs.

The Grand Stairs

The grand staircase or main foyer is the first receptor for museum visitors. The staircase includes the statue of King Ramses II, the statue of King Senusert displayed in the garden of the Liberation Museum, and the head of Bismatik I, and other statues.

Instructions

All instructions will be placed in the museum in three languages: Arabic, English and hieroglyphs.

Tourist Walkway

It is planned that the area between the museum and the pyramids will be designated as a tourist walkway, by removing the archery club and all places that obstruct the walkway, as well as the construction of an overpass bridge over the Fayoum road, which will be implemented during the last stage of the museum’s establishment. The walkway will be used to transport tourists from the museum’s visitors to the Al-Ahram region, either by “kindness” cars or on foot.

Shops and Restaurants

It is planned to establish 20 shops and 8 restaurants in the investment area inside the museum campus, in addition to a hotel with a capacity of 30 rooms away from the covered museum part and the monuments.

The Cost

tThe cost of building the museum is estimated at $ 550 million, of which 100 million is self-financing from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, and the rest is $ 300 million in a soft loan from the Japanese (JICA) organization, in addition to $ 150 million in donations and local and international contributions. The project is being built in three main phases, which are expected to be completed by 2022.

Construction Stages

Phase 1

It is the stage that included designs, technical, engineering and construction drawings, and the determination of the exact cost of the project. The foundation project of President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak was laid in February 2002, and in an international press conference, the international architectural competition for the design of the Grand Egyptian Museum was announced to be the largest museum of Egyptian antiquities in the world next to the Pyramids of Giza, and the international open architectural competition was organized under the auspices of UNESCO and provides architects and consultants from 83 countries with architectural conceptions and projects totaling 1557 projects. In July 2003, the awards of the architectural competition were distributed to the first winners, and the total number of awards reached 750 thousand dollars. Fourteen consulting firms from five different countries participated in the winning design. The study lasted 3 years, at a cost of $ 2 million, which was written in 8 volumes.

Stage one: It is the pre-primary stage during the period from November 23, 2003 to May 23, 2004 and included engineering and technical studies to prepare and research all elements and components necessary for preparing the primary design in all engineering disciplines.
Stage 2: It is the stage that lasted from August 15, 2004 to June 30, 2005 and included preparing engineering drawings for the final primary stage in all engineering disciplines, and during that period construction and construction work began during that stage in May 2005.
Stage 3: It is the stage of detailed design that lasted from April 15, 2006 to April 26, 2007 and included a detailed study of all items and details of the museum and holding the required quality tests on materials and design in addition to the systems expected to be applied.
stage 4 : The stage that lasted from August 15, 2007 until September 15, 2008, during which the design team completed the preparation of an integrated design that combines all disciplines.

Second Phase

Building and construction work started in May 2005 in parallel with the completion of the first phase which involved design work. The second phase included the construction of an archaeological restoration center, two power plants, a fire station, a security building, and archaeological stores. The cost of that stage is about 240 million pounds, equivalent to 43 million dollars, which was fully funded by the Antiquities Fund of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The electric power plant contained central air conditioning and environmental control machines to supply the building with the restoration center with energy. It is also used as an alternative station for the main museum building in an emergency. As for the fire extinguishing center, it was equipped with fire-fighting devices that are managed by the Civil Defense Administration to serve the museum as well as the area surrounding the museum.

• The first stage: Rehabilitation of the site and lasted 6 months, in which the site was cleared of all occupations, removal of waste and building fences to determine ownership with a length of about 3 km and paving the internal roads to facilitate the management of the site during the various stages of implementation, with the allocation of a safe site to transport the Ramses statue, gates and systems were worked out Secure and illuminate the entire site and the banners for the project.
  The second stage: it started in July 2006, when the contracting company was contracted to build and construct the restoration center, energy center and fire station, and the construction was completed within 21 months.
  The third stage: The work of equipping the restoration center with machinery and equipment necessary to start the restoration and preparation of artifacts for display in the museum, with the aim of preparing and preparing one hundred thousand artifacts intended for display in the museum halls.

Phase 2 opening
On June 14, 2010 Mrs. Suzan Mubarak inaugurated the second phase of the project. The opening was witnessed by Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture and Engineer Ahmed Al Maghrabi, Minister of Housing, Dr. Othman Mohamed Othman, Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Ahmed Zaki Badr, Minister of Education, Engineer Sayed Abdel Aziz, Governor of Giza, and Dr. Zahi Hawas, Secretary General of the Supreme Council Antiquities and Dr. Shadia Kenawy, head of the supervision committee for the implementation of the museum project.

Phase 3

It includes building museum galleries, the Learners Museum, the Convention and Cinema Center, an archaeological library, and the Children’s Museum. This is the stage where work is currently underway, as the first stage opens in May 2018 with the display of Tutankhamun’s holdings, with the final opening of the project to take place in November 2022

• The first stage: It is the stage that included construction and construction work that included general excavation, leveling and removal of sand from the site in preparation for the construction of the main building of the museum, and the works ended in February 2009, and site settlement work required continuous work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and during that period was removed 2.25 million cubic meters of sand outside the project site to make the required space available.
  The second stage: It is the stage of construction of the main building on a total area of ​​108 thousand square meters, and that phase began in 2012, and included the construction of museum buildings and museum galleries, the Museum of Scholars and Scholars, the Meeting and Theater Center, three-dimensional cinema, the archaeological library, the Children’s Museum, and the Museum People with special needs, multimedia center, cultural and educational center, crafts and traditional arts center, entertainment and investment area, museum garden, theme parks and cultural tourist path to link the museum to the pyramid plateau.

Transferring of Artifacts

Transferring the statue of Ramesses II
On August 25, 2006, the statue of Ramses II was moved from its old location in Cairo’s Ramses Square to be placed in its new location at the entrance to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which weighs 83 tons.

Transfer the effects of Luxor
In March 2016, the preparations for transferring 778 artifacts from Luxor Governorate to the Grand Egyptian Museum were completed, amid extensive security and security assurances, as well as using distinct protection and packaging methods, of course, to international rules. The artifacts belong to different eras of the ancient Egyptian civilization, although most of them belong to the era of the modern state, among them is a large statue of King Amenhotep III and the god Horus of pink granite weighing about 4 tons, which will be displayed on the grand staircase of the museum in addition to a number of pottery pieces and a group of coffins .

Transferring the effects of the Egyptian Museum, by editing
On September 8, 2016, 525 artifacts were transferred from the Egyptian Museum by editing to the Grand Egyptian Museum, and among the transferred pieces are 367 pieces of King Tutankhamun’s holdings, in preparation for displaying them in his collection that are to be transferred entirely to the Grand Museum at the partial opening of the museum during 2018.

Transfer of the second Khufu compound
In order to complete the restoration and exhibition of the museum, the museum received at various times the pieces of the second Khufu boat.