The Grand Egyptian Museum

The Grand Egyptian Museum is the world’s largest museum, some call it the Fourth Pyramid for its greatness, it is a global edifice and a scientific and cultural institution at the highest level. The Grand Egyptian Museum is distinguished by its inclusion of a huge number of Roman, Greek and Pharaonic antiquities, it is a few kilometers away from The three pyramids of Giza.

The Grand Egyptian Museum construction and design

The idea of establishing this great global Egyptian edifice emerged in 2002 AD, when UNESCO held a competition to design the Grand Egyptian Museum project, which is the world’s largest competition of its kind in architectural design. Approximately 1,557 designs from 83 countries were submitted to this competition, and the Irish company “Heneghan Peng” won the first place in this competition and won an amount of $250,000. The company presented the design for the museum with a facade in the form of triangles, and each triangle is divided into smaller triangles as an idea inspired by the pyramids of Giza, which are two kilometers away from the museum. The Grand Egyptian museum is also distinguished by a majestic appearance if viewed from a distance, from an engineering perspective, we find that the first side of the museum extends to the Great Pyramid, the other side extends to the Pyramid of Menkaure, and the middle side extends to the Pyramid of Khafre. The construction works were won by the Egyptian company Orascom and BESIX from Belgium.

The cost of establishing this great historical edifice was about $550 million, of which $300 million came from Japan, $100 million self-financed from the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, and the rest is donations. The Grand Egyptian Museum was built on an area of 100,000 square meters, of which 45,000 square meters were allocated for museum exhibition, a tourist walkway was established to connect the Grand Museum with the three pyramids to facilitate movement between them for visitors and tourists, according to statistics, the museum can host 5 million visitors annually.

Antiquities of the Grand Egyptian Museum

The world’s great edifice includes a huge number of Roman, Greek and Egyptian Pharaonic antiquities, estimated at about 100,000 artifacts. Upon entering the main lobby of the museum, the visitor finds an obelisk hanging under it the statue of Ramses II, which is 11 meters tall in a majestic view, followed by the Grand Staircase, on which there are giant statues of all the kings and queens of the ancient Egyptian Pharaonic civilization, including statues of Khafre, Menkaure, Senusret, Akhenaten and others.

There are also two exhibitions dedicated only to antiquities belonging to the boy king Tutankhamun, the owner of the most famous tomb throughout history, which was found with all its belongings. The two exhibitions include 5398 artifacts belonging to the boy king, and there are three other exhibitions that contain about 60,000 artifacts.

The Grand Egyptian Museum restoration labs

The Grand Egyptian Museum includes the world’s largest restoration center. It was established on an area of 32,000 square meters below ground level by about 10 meters. A tunnel was built connecting the center to the museum to facilitate safe and fast transportation of antiquities. This center includes 19 laboratories, including:

• Porcelain, Glass and Metals Laboratory: specializing in the restoration of pots and statues made of inorganic materials.
• Wood Lab: for the restoration of artifacts made of wood.
• Stone Lab: for the restoration of large-sized artifacts.
• Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory: Responsible for preparing samples and chemical compounds, which they use in restorations, after determining the type of organisms that cause damage to artifacts in the microbiology laboratory.
• Microbiology lab: responsible for examination and detection to determine the type of organisms that cause damage to artifacts, which facilitates the greening of compounds used in restorations.
• Mummies lab.

Outbuildings of the Grand Egyptian Museum

This great edifice is not limited to its inclusion of antiquities and laboratories only, but it is distinguished by the presence of a wonderful museum garden that contains ancient Egyptian trees that were cultivated in the ancient Pharaonic era. The Grand Egyptian Museum also includes temporary and permanent exhibitions, halls for people with special needs, a main library with approximately 50,000 artifacts for study purposes and scientific research, a museum for children at the highest level, a theater for stereoscopic cinema, a museum for Khufu boats “sun boats”, a conference hall, restaurants and cafeterias. .

Logo used in promotional campaigns

The Lebanese designer “Tarek Atrissi” designed the logo of the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2018 AD, and it cost 800,000 Egyptian pounds. The design of the logo refers to the museum itself, while the orange color of the logo refers to the color of the sunset and the reflection it has on the pyramids plateau, he wrote the museum’s name in an Arabic script that was inspired by the hills and sand dunes that represent the environment of the Grand Egyptian Museum.