I found myself intrigued by a massive complex on the outskirts of Cairo — an impressive site that took decades to build, crafted from carefully hewn stones from local quarries; these structures faced remarkable challenges during their creation and reflect centuries of royal legacy. This is not the famed pyramids of Giza, but rather the Grand Egyptian Museum.
No, I’m referring to the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Few institutions globally have generated as much excitement or faced as many delays as the Grand Egyptian Museum. Its construction has been fraught with issues — from funding problems and logistical challenges to the effects of a pandemic and civil unrest (yes, multiple times) — making comparisons to the nearby pyramids on the Giza Plateau inevitable.
(The Great Pyramid of Giza, built from around 2.3 million stone blocks without the aid of wheels, pulleys, or iron tools, is thought to have taken roughly 25 years to complete. In contrast, the Grand Egyptian Museum has been in development for over 20 years.)
Proposed opening dates have come and gone since 2012. (Even The Times mistakenly included it in our 2020 list of 52 Places to Go, hinting at “exciting new spaces for King Tut and others.”) Frustrated potential visitors have expressed their discontent, with many canceling trips to Cairo based on unreliable opening dates. “I’ve had to cancel two trips to Cairo due to changing opening schedules,” lamented one user on the museum’s Instagram. “This ongoing promise of the museum, along with the repeated delays, is ruining the experience for so many.”
Another commenter humorously noted: “By the time this place opens, we’ll have been dead longer than King Tut!”
The long wait is nearly over. During my visit in mid-February, many areas of the museum were accessible: 11 of the 12 main exhibition spaces, along with an expansive entrance hall and an impressive staircase housing numerous artifacts.
However, one of the main attractions, the Tutankhamun galleries featuring over 5,000 artifacts from the young king’s tomb, were still closed. Currently, Tutankhamun’s iconic gold funeral mask remains on display at the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, as does a separate annex revealing two royal boats discovered in 1954.
These sections of the museum are slated to open this summer, with an official ceremony planned for July 3. (You might want to take that date with a pinch of salt.)
Nonetheless, even the partial exhibitions — along with the building itself and its breathtaking views — are remarkable.
As I entered the main hall, the sheer size of the building and the intriguing textures of its surfaces left me in awe.
Upon entering through the grand pyramid-shaped entrance (the design is hard to miss), I encountered one of the museum’s stunning highlights: a 3,200-year-old statue of Ramses II, celebrated as one of ancient Egypt’s mightiest pharaohs, towering over 30 feet and weighing more than 80 tons. This red-granite statue has a captivating modern narrative: Discovered in 1820 by an Italian Egyptologist, it had been lying on its side in six pieces. In 1954, it was relocated to a downtown Cairo traffic circle, where it remained for 50 years before being carefully moved to the new museum site in 2006.
From the atrium, I made my way up the Grand Staircase — first via a long escalator and then on foot, returning to the bottom for a closer examination of the numerous large statues, columns, and sarcophagi lining the climb.
At the top of the stairs awaited another awe-inspiring view: an unobstructed sight of the Giza pyramids, perfectly framed by floor-to-ceiling windows.
I stood there, mesmerized, for nearly an hour. If there’s a more impressive man-made view anywhere in the world, I have yet to experience it.
Moving past the staircase, I entered the first of the museum’s 12 main galleries, organized chronologically and thematically, covering from prehistory to the Roman period.
Attempting to summarize the exhibition halls would be a thankless task — after all, the joy of visiting such a vast museum lies in discovering unique items that resonate personally with you. A few standout pieces linger in my memory: the striking collection of blue ushabti, figurines created for the afterlife, an enormous mummified crocodile, and a 3,100-year-old wig made from real human hair.
In particular, the wig brought the ancient world to life, bridging a gap that often feels unbridgeable in museums. Sometimes all it takes is a delicate human artifact, carefully preserved over millennia, to breathe life into history.
The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum creates a trio of essential museums in and around Cairo. In Tahrir Square, you’ll find the oldest: the Egyptian Museum, a beautiful Beaux-Arts structure that has housed one of the world’s premier collections of antiquities for over a century. (Due to ongoing transfers of many notable pieces to Giza, concerns about its future persist.)
Another notable site is the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, which opened fully in 2021 and showcases a haunting collection of royal mummies.
Each of these three museums deserves a full visit.
In many respects, the Grand Egyptian Museum stands out on its own. Touted as the largest archaeological museum globally and the largest devoted to a single civilization, the idea was initially proposed by Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-time president, in 1992. A ceremonial foundation stone was laid a decade later, and in 2003, the Dublin-based firm Heneghan Peng Architects won the design competition. Construction commenced in 2005.
However, a series of significant setbacks followed: the 2008 economic crisis, the Arab Spring (which devastated Egypt’s tourism sector), the Covid-19 pandemic, and regional conflicts in Gaza and Sudan. Over time, the anticipation for the museum fell prey to the ongoing narrative of its delays.
Yet, I believe that the lengthy postponements will soon be forgotten.
From my experience, a leisurely walk through the museum’s timeless exhibitions — and a moment of reflection from the top of its staircase — make the long wait worthwhile.
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