The gigantic Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo. After the Pyramids, here – must go!

My previous post about Cairo turned out a bit gloomy, so let me lighten the mood with something upbeat! Today’s post is all about the Grand Egyptian Museum, aka the Giza Museum ->

This place is absolutely mind-blowing.

First of all, it’s massive. Cavernous! Second, it’s been built using super-modern designs and tech. And third, it’s just plain stunning – right off the bat at the entrance:

Yep, it’s huge; you can tell that in satellite pics. And the view from inside is even more impressive ->

And this is just the entrance! ->

You head up these stairs to get to the main exhibit. But if you’re feeling lazy, there’s an escalator to the side (plus an elevator – and maybe even more ways to get up there)…

The stairs are lined with all kinds of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Sadly, we only had about an hour here. We tried to rush through everything, but really you need at least half a day – ideally with a good guide to soak up all the history and archaeology. Didn’t work out this time, unfortunately…

The building is split in two by this staircase – with a passage connecting the two halves; however, the second half of the museum hasn’t opened yet ->

Ooh – what’s with this statue’s slightly Asian-looking face and funky ears? Anyone know the story behind it? ->

And that’s just the entrance area – here’s the top view of the staircase leading to the main halls:

And a shot in the other direction – with a just a regular view of banality out the window ->

Then you get to the main exhibit – the one that’s already open to the public. The museum’s not even officially open yet as it’s still under construction, but they’ve started letting some tourists into the finished sections (like us, for example). Cant’ wait for it to open fully…

Considering it’s an unfinished work, as a museum it all seems pretty well planned…

The artifacts are grouped by eras and themes, and “Ancient Egypt” – woah: it’s colossal (who knew?!).

// By the way, there are some really cool videos online about the history of Ancient Egypt – definitely worth checking out for some self-improvement :)

I won’t try and give a detailed or expert rundown of Egypt’s history or the amazing stuff on display – I’m hardly an expert in this field. And anyway, we only had a few hours between work meetings (including travel time), so this was a quick race through the museum (a reconnaissance mission for a future, proper visit). So today I’ll keep it short…

The early dynasties – yep, some stuff actually survived! ->

The original paint’s still intact! Looks that way, anyway ->

Very grandiose and swish ->

Spacious, elegant; Grand! ->

Everything on display is an original.

Luckily, Egypt has no shortage of those :)

Some artifacts were found in pieces, but the museum’s restored them beautifully:

And this is… a horoscope from way back when! So, turns out, nothing much in the world has really changed in thousands of years except engineering technology! ->

Continuing deeper into Egypt’s history:

And we hit the Greco-Roman period – where the story of Ancient Egypt pretty much ends. As did our quick reccie-mission…

Bottom line? The museum is grandly grandiose, luxurious, and smartly designed. A solid six stars out of five!

The exterior infrastructure is built for “China-level crowds” – I’ve only ever seen entrance setups this massive and crowds-ready in China ->

And that was that. Like I say – can’t wait till it opens in full!…

The best high-res pics from Egypt are here.