Grand Egyptian Museum

After two decades of planning and construction, the moment has finally arrived: today, Saturday 1 November 2025, marks the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) beside the pyramids. It has been described as the largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilization.

The museum was conceived in the 1990s; construction began in 2005 but was postponed multiple times due to unrest, the pandemic, and the regional climate.

A display inside the Grand Egyptian Museum

The official opening

The official opening and ceremony will take place today on the 1st of November. The public opening follows on Tuesday 4 November 2025. The opening show will be streamed exclusively on TikTok. TikTok is officially the digital partner of the ceremony, handy for international followers who can’t be there. Dozens of heads of state are expected to attend. President al-Sisi will lead the proceedings. Private tours for invited guests will be held on 2 and 3 November.

In the past there were soft openings of the museum, where visitors could already see parts of the building and collection, but the difference now is that you get the complete Tutankhamun display and a concentration of masterpieces that were previously scattered across Cairo.

What’s on view at the museum

An iconic entrance hall with the 83-ton statue of Ramses II, thematic galleries spanning three millennia and brought together in full for the first time. Also the entire Tutankhamun collection and the 4,500-year-old solar boat of Khufu has also been moved to the site.

Money and criticism

The museum is a key puzzle piece in Egypt’s tourism strategy. New infrastructure, including proximity to Sphinx International Airport, is meant to increase visitor throughput and length of stay. Estimates of the museum’s total cost vary widely, from $1 billion to more than $3 billion. Funding came from Egyptian resources and Japanese loans/technical assistance. Many critics find the museum’s focus too “pharaonic,” with less emphasis on the social history of ancient Egypt.

Conservation and security

The GEM will also serve as a high-tech conservation hub with modern labs, climate control, and security—priorities following earlier concerns about storage and collections.

What happens to the old Egyptian Museum?

The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir will remain in operation and be repurposed with new thematic approaches—complementary to the GEM.