A ceremony was held on 1 November, attended by Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and leaders from Spain, Germany and the Netherlands as well as dozens of other international dignitaries. The night sky lit up with drones and fireworks with imagery from Ancient Egypt. A torchlight procession accompanied the transfer of King Tutankhamun’s possessions from the old Egyptian Museum in central Cairo to the new site.
The opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum, 1 November 2025.
The long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) openednear the Giza Pyramids outside Cairo on 1 November, becoming the world’s largest archaeological museum.
Officially announcedin 1992, construction began in 2002 but faced repeated delays because of the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, COVID-19 and recent global conflicts. Selected galleries had opened to the public in October 2024 ahead of the official inauguration this year.
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The GEM offers access to thousands of artefactsthat had never been displayed before. It opened to the public on 4 November, welcomingaround 18,000 visitors on its first day. For the first time since Howard Carter’s discoveryin 1922, visitors are now able to see the complete contentsof the tomb of Tutankhamun – the famous “boy pharaoh” who ruled briefly in the 14th century BCE – including his golden burial mask and throne.
The museum is huge, covering 500,000 sq m, and includes 12 permanent exhibition galleries, several gardens and a children’s museum.Other highlights include Khufu’s solar ships(ancient ceremonial boats buried beside the Great Pyramid) and the collection of Queen Hetepheres.
The ambitious design of the GEM aims to meet the highest standards, strengthening Egypt’s calls to repatriate key artefacts, including the bust of Queen Nefertiti (currently in Berlin), the Dendera Zodiac (Paris) and the Rosetta Stone (London). With the opening of the new facility, pressure is growing on Germany, France and the UK to return these iconic objects.
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