The ceremonial cornerstone of the Grand Egyptian Museum was laid in early 2002, although at this point no architectural plans has been selected yet to build the new museum complex. Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone of the Grand Egyptian Museum. On August 25th, 2006, the Statue of Ramesses II was moved from Ramses Square in Cairo to the Giza Plateau, in anticipation of construction of the museum. The Statue of Ramesses II, estimated to be approximately 3,200 years old, was moved to the entrance of the museum in January 2018. Also, in May 2018, the last of King Tutankhamun's chariots was moved to GEM. The transferred treasures of Tutankhamun include a set of gold jewelry and necklaces, as well as a gilded wooden statue depicting the golden king with a stick in one hand and a flail in the other, standing on the back of a leopard, and wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt, with the sacred uraeus on his forehead and a wide beaded necklace covering his chest and shoulders. A number of rare artifacts dating back to the Old and New Kingdoms were transferred as well, like a double statue of the writer of Atun Temple in Tal El-Amarna, Mery-Re, who later changed his name to Mery-Atun. In addition, some 87-statues of ancient Egyptian kings are set to be exhibited at the Great Staircase. 51-artifacts are yet to be placed on the great staircase.

The main contract for the design of the Grand Egyptian Museum was awarded in 2003 after an extensive international competition, but in total a team of 300 people  from 6- different countries contributed to the design phase of this Grand New Egyptian Museum. UNESCO is also one of several entities supervising the mega project. The museum complex will end up providing tourists with a uniquely enjoyable, educational, cultural experience, and comfort the likes of which cannot be found in major other world museums.

The original cost of the Grand Egyptian Museum was estimated to be around $500 million, but delays, changes in design, and other factors have escalated the final cost to over $1 billion. The New Grand Museum complex will be built on a whopping 119-acres. You can do the math and figure out how huge the Grand Egypt Museum is. Just to place things in aspect of relativeness, the current Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square is sitting on a space of 3.7 acres. This makes the New Grand Museum, a 120-times larger than the old Egyptian Museum. This makes the Egyptian museum, one of the largest museums in the world displaying the heritage of a single civilization, displaying artefacts not only from the Pharaonic era, but it also includes a collection of pottery from different ancient eras, parts of sarcophagi and coins. Also, among the artefacts are objects from the Islamic period.  

The facilities offer a new home to relics previously held by the notoriously crowded Egyptian Museum, in central Cairo's Tahrir square, once considered the country's leading history institution. The old Egyptian museum at Tahrir square is now 117-years old, it has become an artifact, heritage building and an Egyptian landmark itself. During its Glory days it was a great museum, but through the decades, it has become and started to being converted into more and more a storage space, housing all new discoveries that couldn’t be displayed on any of the four levels, that the museum has, since it was already packed with thousands of artifacts. Some of the new pieces that has never been displayed before, that the new museum will be its newfound home are, a complete burial chamber found in southern Saqqara for a man called ‘Sabi’, who was a high official priest from the reign of the VI dynasty of King Pepi II. Also, an entire rare collection that was discovered inside a Mastaba (a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks) of Ptahshepses in Abusir. There will be many displayed for the first-time artefacts that are considered massive discoveries.

One of the first pieces moved fairly early to the Grand Egyptian Museum was an enormous 3,200 year old statue of Ramses II, that had previously stood in the middle of a traffic circle in Cairo known as Ramses Square, by Egypt’s main train station, known as Cairo main train station.

The new Grand Egyptian Museum will be hosting over 100,000 artifacts, out of which, at least 3500-pieces belong to the famous King Tutankhamen, also known as the boy King Tutankhamun, also known by most around the world, as King Tut. Read more about the boy king, at our Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/Egypt-Tours-Travel-1612323329049980/photos/2808386119443689.

Some of the objects to be displayed in the new museum, will be relocated from storages and other museums from the towns of Luxor, Minya, Sohag, Assiut, Beni Suef, Fayoum, the Delta area, and Alexandria. The Grand Egyptian Museum is expected to receive around 19,000 visitors each day, that is more than 3-times the current number that the current Egyptian Museum in Tahrir square can handle.

The current Egyptian Museum is in Tahrir Square in the heart of downtown Cairo, one of the busiest areas in the country of Egypt. The new Grand Egyptian Museum, will be located a short 1.2 miles away from the Pyramids Plateau, making it much easier for visitors to travel between the two sites and avoid the well-known and famous traffic congestion in both towns, Cairo and Giza. Saving visitors as much as 2-hours in commuting between the two locations.

Read more about the King Tut history, and what made this king so famous when he bestowed as a king of Egypt, at the very young age of 9-years old, in our Egypt blog link https://www.egypttours.com/blog/what-do-you-know-about-king-tut-the-young-egyptian-king

The New Grand Egyptian Museum will have an unobstructed view of the Pyramids. The top level of the new Egyptian Museum will have a great observatory of the three Giza Pyramids. Nested between the ancient Great Pyramids and the modern city of Cairo. The Grand Egyptian Museum is truly a portal to history in extreme elegance and grandeur.

One of the main features of the new grand Egypt museum (GEM) is the translucent stone wall, made completely of alabaster stone, makes up the front facade of the museum. Inside the main entrance is a large atrium, where massive Ramses II statues being exhibited. Making this new Egyptian museum a piece of art, even if it has no artifacts displayed in there. Related articles by Egypt Tours New Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)

For further information about the New Grand Egyptian Museum, please follow our Egypt Tours blog link https://www.egypttours.com/blog/the-impressive-new-grand-egyptian-museum or visit Egypt Tours website at www.EgyptTours.com