5 Highlights of Egypt’s New Grand Egyptian Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) has been greater than twenty years within the making, a feat of persistence that invitations comparability with the close by Great Pyramid of Giza. Its latest unveiling proves, as soon as once more, that good issues come to those that wait.

Fully opened to the general public in November 2025, the $1.2bn (£885m) establishment on the outskirts of Cairo homes the world’s largest assortment of historic Egyptian artefacts in a single museum. Yet, at roughly twice the scale of the Louvre in Paris and with about 50,000 artefacts on show throughout 12 galleries that span prehistory to the Roman period, it’s practically not possible to see every little thing in a single day.

Instead, it’s higher to decelerate and deal with a handful of key displays that illuminate the wonders of historic Egypt, set inside this totally fashionable museum. Here’s what you shouldn’t miss, in line with tour information and Egyptologist Andrew Shnouda.

1. Statue of Ramesses II

As guests step previous the museum’s hieroglyph-adorned facade and into the echoing entrance corridor, they’re met by the colossal determine of Ramesses II. The 3,200-year-old statue of one among Egypt’s strongest pharaohs stands 11 metres tall. Discovered in 1820 damaged in six items, it was reassembled and displayed for many years in downtown Cairo. When the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) broke floor, it was the primary object introduced right here, and the museum was constructed round it.

2. Mask of Tutankhamun

The 1922 discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun ignited a worldwide frenzy of curiosity within the historical past and artwork of historic Egypt. More than 5,000 objects from the boy king’s tomb are on show within the GEM. The undisputed star is the kohl-eyed funerary masks, buried with Tutankhamun’s mummy, crafted in strong gold. Following unintended injury to its braided beard in 2014, it’s been meticulously restored and now gleams in a glass case earlier than a snaking queue.

3. Khufu’s Solar Boat

Solar Boat Dating to round 2500 BCE and constructed from cedar wooden, the boat of King Khufu was found in some 1,200 items beside the Great Pyramid of Khufu in 1954. Now displayed in an unlimited two-storey gallery with elevated viewing platforms, it was painstakingly reassembled utilizing archaeological data. Ancient Egyptians believed the pharaoh would be a part of the solar god Ra on his cosmic journey throughout the heavens after dying, so archaeologists named it a ‘solar boat’.

(Related: The Essential Guide to Visiting Cairo.)

4. Statue of Hatshepsut

The story behind this granite statue is really outstanding. One of the few girls to imagine full pharaonic energy, Hatshepsut dominated throughout the 18th Dynasty, round 1470 BCE, when kingship was firmly a person’s area. To legitimise her authority, Hatshepsut introduced herself in official artwork and inscriptions as a male ruler, adopting masculine titles and even donning a false beard — as this statue depicts. She’s remembered for a largely peaceable reign.

5. Ostraca – Records of Daily Life

While Egypt’s celebrated rulers are inclined to command the highlight, the tales of the employees who toiled within the shadows of the good pyramids typically stay missed. But the New Kingdom galleries have cupboards full of ostraca — damaged flakes of pottery lined in graffiti-like inscriptions. A far cheaper various to sheets of papyrus, ostraca have been used to document the comings and goings of every day life. Unearthed close to Luxor, lots of these housed inside GEM date again greater than 3,000 years. The assortment contains data of on a regular basis admin, akin to tallies noting workmen absent by sickness. And there’s even a fraction that includes somebody grumbling about their mother-in-law.

(Discover extra: 7 Priceless Artifacts You Won’t Find on the Grand Egyptian Museum.)