There’s a new Egyptian attraction down the street from the Giza pyramids.
It’s called The Grand Egyptian Museum, it’s eight years behind schedule and no one’s really complaining. When you can claim 100,000 ancient artifacts — 20,000 of which have never been on display to the public before, and one of them is this guy — a fashionably late opening only adds to the intrigue.
Egypt has had a chaotic decade, to say the least, and the museum halted construction from 2011 to 2014, due to the revolution. It started back up again a few years ago, and curators and builders have been in hyper-drive ever since, angling for a 2020 opening.
They’re expecting gargantuan tourist numbers, up to eight million a year. That would immediately place the museum in rarified, Louvre-level air. And it’s not difficult to imagine those dreams coming to fruition. The GEM will be 5.2 million square feet when finished, and features the greatest hits of 6,000 years of civilization, from golden chariots to King Tut’s clothing and funeral beds. It’s going to make the MET look like a high school art exhibit.
And you should absolutely visit, before everyone else does. Thankfully, that’s entirely doable. For a sum of $250, you can book a spot on a four-hour private tour, which the museum is hosting each day ahead of the opening, in order to drum up interest. Admission when it does open will be way less (as in, under a dollar), but good luck looking at anything for longer than three seconds. If you’re going to Egypt, we figure, you might as well do it right. Plus, the new complex is just a mile from the pyramids, so it should be a productive afternoon.
In order to book your tour, reach out to the museum here.
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