A Pharaonic construction: The Great Egyptian Museum

The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed all plans for grand openings, such as the Grand Egyptian Museum. President Abdelfatah al Sisi ordered last April that the opening of the great museum be postponed until 2021. Although the museum was scheduled to open in 2011, the delay in construction and the instability that the country has experienced since then have delayed its opening.

It is the largest museum in the world. With 490,000 square meters, it is the size of a large airport terminal. The Egyptian Minister of Antiquities and Tourism, Khaled al- Anany, himself has called it the "Fourth Pyramid". This imposing construction will house more than 100,000 pieces of Egyptology, including 3,500 relics of the famous "child pharaoh" Tutankhamun.

It is this gallery, which collects the relics of Tutankhamun, the star attraction of the museum. In addition to the gold treasures, such as masks, diadems, coffins, carts and jewelry, visitors can see more everyday objects, such as the pharaoh's staffs, loincloths, games and food boxes with coriander seeds and juniper berries, for example. Japan has been one of the main sponsors of the museum, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency, which has trained hundreds of Egyptian curators through loans worth 75% of the cost.

The Great Egyptian Museum is of paramount importance to the country. General Moftah, who supervised the construction of the museum, said that what President Al Sisi expects from this building is "perfection". The economy of the Nile country has been hit hard in recent years, first by the political and social instabilities that led to the major uprisings of 2013 and now after the COVID-19 crisis, the tourism sector has been the big casualty. Egypt is a country that depends on the third sector and urgently needs tourists to return. Moftah expects the museum to attract between two and three million visitors in the first year, with the hope that it will reach eight million.