Waiting for Grand Egyptian Museum

The whole world is waiting for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum... after a long time, a global event that will attract millions of admirers of Egyptian civilization.

This week, the soft opening of the museum will begin, to be the largest and most important archaeological museum in the world, I followed up Dr. Mostafa Madbouly statement from Luxor and his meeting with experts in the presence of the great archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass.

The Prime Minister listened to the experts’ vision regarding promoting the important event and introducing the world to the antiquities contained in this great cultural edifice that tells the history of Egypt and its ancient civilization. It is a great event that the whole world has been waiting for over the past years since the idea was born in the head of artist Farouk Hosni in 1992 and then we lost hope of completing it during the incidents of January 25, and it came back to life after June 30.

I still remember what Farouk Hosni narrated while he was in France, someone asked him, “What are you doing concerning your artifacts in Tahrir?” Hosni replied,  we will build the largest museum in the world?” and he began turning his dream into reality. The engineer who designed the museum is a Chinese one, and 1,557 consulting offices participated in developing the designs, and when Japan gave us a loan of 300 million dollars, the artist’s dream turned into reality. 

We seek to restore the unique pieces, such as the Rosetta Stone and the head of Nefertiti, or even to borrow them to be at the opening with the Tutankhamun artifacts to complete the dazzling picture.

I believe that the efforts to promote the opening of the museum should be part of an integrated system to promote antiquities and archaeological sites. The opening of the museum will place Egypt and its antiquities in the focus of the world’s attention.

I also see that these efforts should focus on Egyptians at home first. There must be an awareness campaign to teach people in general and those working in tourism services in particular how to deal with tourists through campaigns in the media and signboards in the streets. I hope that we will start from now until the he museum that the world has been waiting for is fully opened.