The Grand Egyptian Museum showcasing 50,000 artifacts is finally opening

CAIRO (AP) — After two decades of anticipation and countless delays, the Grand Egyptian Museum is finally having its grand reveal.

The museum, which is set to officially open Saturday, highlights Egypt's ancient civilization and is a centerpiece of the government’s drive to boost the tourist industry, a major source of foreign currency in the cash-strapped country.

Located just outside Cairo next to the famed Giza Pyramids, the $1 billion mammoth facility is poised to become the world’s largest museum dedicated to a single civilization with over 50,000 artifacts detailing the life in ancient Egypt. By comparison, the Louvre Museum in Paris has about 35,000 pieces on display.

The museum is one of the mega-projects championed by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who since taking office in 2014 embarked on massive investments in infrastructure with the aim of reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

The museum’s construction began in 2005, but work stopped for three years during the political turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising.

The grand opening was postponed multiple times, most recently in July this year because of conflicts in the Middle East. World leaders are expected to attend the opening ceremony Saturday.

Designed by the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects, the museum, known as GEM, boasts a towering, triangular glass façade imitating the nearby pyramids.

In its entrance atrium stands the granite colossus of one of Egypt’s most famed pharaohs, Ramesses the Great. The 3,200-year-old, 11-meters-tall (36-foot-tall) statue was moved to the museum after decades of standing in the center of a traffic-clogged roundabout in front of Cairo’s main train station.

From the atrium, a grand six-story staircase lined with ancient statues leads up to the main galleries and a view of the nearby pyramids. A bridge links the museum to the pyramids, allowing tourists to move between them either on foot or via electric, environment-friendly vehicles, according to museum officials.

The museum includes 24,000 square meters (258,000 square feet) of permanent exhibition space, a children’s museum and conference and educational facilities, and a commercial area as well as a large conservation center.

The 12 main galleries, which opened last year, exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, organized by era and by themes.

Many of the 50,000 artifacts in the GEM were moved from the Egyptian Museum, a packed, century-old building in downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Others were recently unearthed from ancient cemeteries, including the Saqqara necropolis, another complex of pyramids and tombs about 14 miles (22 kilometers) south of the museum.

The halls are equipped with advanced technology and feature multimedia presentations including mixed-reality shows to help explain ancient Egypt to new generations, said Ahmed Ghoneim, the museum’s CEO.

“We’re using the language that the Gen Z uses right now,” he said in an interview. “Gen Z doesn’t use anymore the labels that we read as old people but rather use technology.”

Saturday's grand opening will include the inauguration of two halls dedicated to the 5,000 artifacts from the collection of King Tutankhamun.

The collection is being displayed in its entirety for the first time since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered King Tut's tomb in 1922 in the southern city of Luxor. The old Egyptian Museum didn't have enough space to show all the tomb's treasures at once.

Some masterpieces were restored at the museum’s conservation center, including the boy pharaoh's three funeral beds and six chariots, said Jailan Mohamed, chief restorer at the conservation center.

They will be displayed along with his golden throne, his gold-covered sarcophagus and his burial mask, made of gold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and colored glass. The mask’s beard was accidentally knocked off and hastily glued back on with epoxy in 2014, before a German-Egyptian team of experts fixed it the following year.

Another centerpiece of the museum is the 4,600-year-old solar boat of King Khufu, the pharaoh who is credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza. The 43-meter-long (140-foot) wooden boat, discovered in the 1950s, was buried next to the Great Pyramid for Khufu — or Cheops as he is also known — to use in the afterlife. In 2021, it was moved from its display site by the pyramids into the Grand Egyptian Museum on a remote-controlled vehicle imported from Belgium.

The government hopes the museum will draw more tourists who will stay for a while and provide the foreign currency Egypt needs to shore up its economy.

The tourism sector suffered from years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. In recent years, the sector has started to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, and the effects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Both Russia and Ukraine are a major source of tourists visiting Egypt.

A record number of 15.7 million visited the country in 2024, according to official figures, and the government aims to attract 30 million visitors by 2032.

Authorities overhauled the whole area around the museum and the pyramids. Roads were paved and a metro station is being constructed outside the museum gates to ease access to the sites. An airport, Sphinx International Airport, was also opened west of Cairo — 40 minutes from the museum.

Hassan Allam, CEO of Hassan Allam Holding, the firm operating the museum, said they’re expecting between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors a day at the museum.

“The world has been waiting … Everyone’s excited,” he said.

A tourist takes a selfie in front of Akhenaten statue during his visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Tourists visit the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Tourists visit the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Tourists view the site of the great Pyramids from the rest zone of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A tourist takes a selfie in front of Akhenaten statue during his visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Tourists stand under the statue of Pharaoh Ramses II, at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, Egypt, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Troops from several European countries continued to arrive in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark as talks between representatives of Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. highlighted “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island.

Denmark announced it would increase its military presence in Greenland on Wednesday as foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland were preparing to meet with White House representatives in Washington. Several European partners — including France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands — started sending symbolic numbers of troops already on Wednesday or promised to do so in the following days.

The troop movements were intended to portray unity among Europeans and send a signal to President Donald Trump that an American takeover of Greenland is not necessary as NATO together can safeguard the security of the Arctic region amid rising Russian and Chinese interest.

“The first French military elements are already en route” and “others will follow,” French President Emmanuel Macron announced Wednesday, as French authorities said about 15 soldiers from the mountain infantry unit were already in Nuuk for a military exercise.

Germany will deploy a reconnaissance team of 13 personnel to Greenland on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said.

On Thursday, Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said the intention was “to establish a more permanent military presence with a larger Danish contribution,” according to Danish broadcaster DR. He said soldiers from several NATO countries will be in Greenland on a rotation system.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, flanked by his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt, said Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains with Trump after they held highly anticipated talks at the White House with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rasmussen added that it remains “clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland” but that dialogue with the U.S. would continue at a high level over the following weeks.

Inhabitants of Greenland and Denmark reacted with anxiety but also some relief that negotiations with the U.S. would go on and European support was becoming visible.

Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen welcomed the continuation of “dialogue and diplomacy.”

“Greenland is not for sale,” he said Thursday. “Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed from the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States.”

In Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, local residents told The Associated Press they were glad the first meeting between Greenlandic, Danish and American officials had taken place but suggested it left more questions than answers.

Several people said they viewed Denmark’s decision to send more troops, and promises of support from other NATO allies, as protection against possible U.S. military action. But European military officials have not suggested the goal is to deter a U.S. move against the island.

Maya Martinsen, 21, said it was “comforting to know that the Nordic countries are sending reinforcements” because Greenland is a part of Denmark and NATO.

The dispute, she said, is not about “national security” but rather about “the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched.”

On Wednesday, Poulsen announced a stepped-up military presence in the Arctic “in close cooperation with our allies,” calling it a necessity in a security environment in which “no one can predict what will happen tomorrow.”

“This means that from today and in the coming time there will be an increased military presence in and around Greenland of aircraft, ships and soldiers, including from other NATO allies,” Poulsen said.

Asked whether the European troop movements were coordinated with NATO or what role the U.S.-led military alliance might play in the exercises, NATO referred all questions to the Danish authorities. However, NATO is currently studying ways to bolster security in the Arctic.

The Russian embassy in Brussels on Thursday lambasted what it called the West's “bellicose plans” in response to “phantom threats that they generate themselves”. It said the planned military actions were part of an “anti-Russian and anti-Chinese agenda” by NATO.

“Russia has consistently maintained that the Arctic should remain a territory of peace, dialogue and equal cooperation," the embassy said.

Rasmussen announced the creation of a working group with the Americans to discuss ways to work through differences.

“The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” he said.

Commenting on the outcome of the Washington meeting on Thursday, Poulsen said the working group was “better than no working group” and “a step in the right direction.” He added nevertheless that the dialogue with the U.S. did not mean “the danger has passed.”

Speaking on Thursday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the American ambition to take over Greenland remains intact despite the Washington meeting, but she welcomed the creation of the working group.

The most important thing for Greenlanders is that they were directly represented at the meeting in the White House and that “the diplomatic dialogue has begun now,” Juno Berthelsen, a lawmaker for the pro-independence Naleraq opposition party, told AP.

A relationship with the U.S. is beneficial for Greenlanders and Americans and is “vital to the security and stability of the Arctic and the Western Alliance,” Berthelsen said. He suggested the U.S. could be involved in the creation of a coastguard for Greenland, providing funding and creating jobs for local people who can help to patrol the Arctic.

Line McGee, 38, from Copenhagen, told AP that she was glad to see some diplomatic progress. “I don’t think the threat has gone away,” she said. “But I feel slightly better than I did yesterday.”

Trump, in his Oval Office meeting with reporters, said: “We’ll see how it all works out. I think something will work out.”

Niemann reported from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Ciobanu from Warsaw, Poland.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenland's Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt speak at a news conference at the Embassy of Denmark, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)

People walk on a street in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

From center to right, Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, Denmark's Ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen, rear, and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, right, arrive on Capitol Hill to meet with senators from the Arctic Caucus, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

An Airbus A400M transport aircraft of the German Air Force taxis over the grounds at Wunstorf Air Base in the Hanover region, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 as troops from NATO countries, including France and Germany, are arriving in Greenland to boost security. (Moritz Frankenberg/dpa via AP)

Fishermen load fishing lines into a boat in the harbor of Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Greenland Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, left, and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, arrive on Capitol Hill to meet with members of the Senate Arctic Caucus, in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)