Grand Egyptian Museum

Our Review

The Grand Egyptian Museum is the kind of project that rewrites the rules. Located two kilometers from the Giza Pyramids, this 490,000-square-meter facility is the largest archaeological museum ever constructed, housing more than 100,000 artifacts, many displayed publicly for the first time. The architects Heneghan Peng designed the building with translucent alabaster panels and triangulated facades that echo the nearby pyramids, flooding the enormous interior with desert-filtered light.

The entry statement is immediate: an 83-ton pink granite statue of Ramesses II dominates the atrium. Behind it, the Grand Staircase descends through a chronological corridor of royal statuary, from Old Kingdom seated kings to Ptolemaic portraits, creating one of the most dramatic museum experiences on earth.

But the centerpiece is Tutankhamun. For the first time, all 5,398 objects from the boy king's tomb are displayed together: the golden death mask, the celestial cattle bed, the chariots, the canopic jars, the jewelry. Everything Howard Carter found when he opened the tomb in 1922 is here. The sheer accumulation of gold, craftsmanship, and funerary devotion is overwhelming. Allow a minimum of four hours.

What to Know

• Arrive early to avoid midday crowds
• Multilingual audio guides available on-site
• Photography generally permitted (no flash)
• Accessible facilities and family-friendly amenities
• Allow minimum 2-3 hours for a thorough visit