Museums

Grand Egyptian Museum Near Cairo Partially Opens; Massive Facility Built With Japanese Support

Photo by Michinari Nishida / The Yomiuri Shimbun
Visitors view ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, near Cairo, on Wednesday.

By Michinari Nishida / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

12:40 JST, October 23, 2024

CAIRO — The Grand Egyptian Museum near Cairo recently held a soft opening of its permanent collection exhibition areas. Visitors can now view relics including cultural assets from ancient Egypt at the museum, which is being constructed with Japanese support.

The areas currently available to the public have a combined floor space of about 20,000 square meters. More than 10,000 artifacts are on display, including statues. The museum plans to admit about 4,000 visitors per day as a practice run in preparation for the official opening.

Construction of the museum in Giza, close to Cairo, began in 2012. However, its opening was postponed multiple times due to political instability in the country and the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the Oct. 16 soft opening, the date of the official opening has not been made known.

The total cost of construction is more than $10 billion (about ¥150 billion), over half of which has been provided by Japan via yen loans. Japan is also providing the museum with technical support for the preservation and restoration of antiquities.

A plan to transfer King Tutankhamun’s relics and other artifacts now exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to the new museum in the future is underway. The move would enable the facility to officially open as one of the world’s largest museums that houses more than 100,000 items.