After Two Decades, the Grand Egyptian Museum Finally Opened in Giza

The entrance to the Grand Egyptian Museum. (Photo courtesy GEM)

Since 2012, planned openings for the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza have come and gone, mostly thanks to funding issues, logistical hurdles, the pandemic, nearby wars, and multiple revolutions. Just this past summer, GEM pushed its July 2 opening due to conflicts between Iran and Israel in the surrounding region. But now, after more than 20 years of construction and delays, the sprawling, 120-acre museum has finally opened in its entirety.

On November 1, 2025, Egypt held a grand opening for GEM, marking a new era for the country’s cultural and archeological landscape. The museum cost a staggering $1 billion, a price tag that seemingly justifies the sheer scale of its collection: over 100,000 artifacts can be found within, some 20,000 of which have never been on public view before. To top it off, GEM now stands as the second largest museum in the world, and surpasses even the Louvre in terms of its available exhibition space. At the heart of GEM, however, is undoubtedly King Tutankhamun’s tomb, whose contents will be displayed in their entirety for the first time since their original discovery in 1922.

“What sets this apart is not just the full collection, but how it is presented—as a narrative of the king’s life and reign, not as standalone objects, and without visual clutter,” Ahmed Ghoneim, GEM’s museum director, said of the tomb for ABC News.

GEM’s opening ceremony attracted several international politicians, prime ministers, royals, and government officials from some 80 countries, including Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the crown princes of Oman and Bahrain, among others. Also in attendance were some of Egypt’s most beloved stars, many of whom were dressed as such legendary figures from Egyptian history as Cleopatra VII, Queen Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut. An international orchestra played beneath a sky set ablaze with lasers, fireworks, and hovering lights that formed hieroglyphics.

“We are writing a new chapter of the history of the present and the future in the story of this ancient nation,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said during the event.

The museum’s opening comes amid increased demands for the repatriation of looted artifacts, much of which were taken under colonial pretexts. At the center of this debate are the Rosetta Stone, which is currently held by the British Museum in London; the Dendera zodiac in the Louvre; and the Bust of Nefertiti in Berlin’s Neues Museum. Most recently, Prime Minister Schoof of the Netherlands announced that his country would be returning an illegally trafficked bust to Egypt by the end of the year.

“It [is] my dream. I’m really happy to see this museum is finally open!” Dr. Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former long-time minister of tourism and antiquities, told the BBC. “Now I want two things: number one, museums to stop buying stolen artifacts and number two, I need [those] three objects to come back.”

Dr. Monica Hanna, dean of the Arab Academy of Science and Technology, echoed the sentiment in The Times: “We don’t want every Egyptian artifact abroad. We want those essential to Egypt’s narrative.”

Learn more about the Grand Egyptian Museum via GEM’s website.