Grand Egyptian Museum, opening in early 2018

[de officiis]

Grand Egyptian Museum, opening in early 2018

For the First Time, All 5,000 Objects Found Inside King Tut's Tomb Will Be Displayed Together

Blending the old with the new . . . is central to the mission of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), which is currently under construction just 2 kilometers from the Great Pyramids of Giza ... . Our visit is courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham Egypt), sponsoring an international media delegation including Smithsonian.com as part of an effort to bolster tourism. And, as General Director Dr. Tarek Sayed Tawfik explained, he and his team have a vision for the new facility that's just as impressive as its name suggests.

“The identity of this museum is the state, kingship and eternity of ancient Egypt,” says Tawfik, who adds that the collection will do much more than simply display masterpieces of art. "It will also give a lot of background to the visitor ... how and why the artifacts were produced. This is a whole new aspect that will give this museum another taste.”

Indeed, Tawfik says the GEM will have an incredible 50,000 unique objects on display—30,000 of which have never been shown to the public.

They have King Tut's shield--not something you see every day. Maybe Hash will give us a report at some point.

[Montegriffo]

I've been to the Cairo museum where most of the Tutankhamun treasures were kept. The 140lb gold sarcophagus was an incredible work of art. I think you would need a couple of days to fully appreciate the 7 story museum. There was a statistic that if you looked at each item in the museum for 1 minute and only during opening hours it would take over 30 years to see everything.

[Martin Hash]

I've been to the Cairo museum where most of the Tutankhamun treasures were kept.

My wife, Gwynne, and I were there a year or so before it was sacked during the "Arab Spring" revolution. It was old & decrepit, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, which made it even more facinating. Egypt exceeded our expectations, which were already pretty high from years of reading National Geographic.

p.s. This was before the Workman's village was looted too.

[Montegriffo]

I've been to the Cairo museum where most of the Tutankhamun treasures were kept.

My wife, Gwynne, and I were there a year or so before it was sacked during the "Arab Spring" revolution. It was old & decrepit, like something out of an Indiana Jones movie, which made it even more facinating. Egypt exceeded our expectations, which were already pretty high from years of reading National Geographic.

p.s. This was before the Workman's village was looted too.

How much of the treasure was looted? I was there in the 90's and it was quite a grand affair. A nice colonial era building which was well maintained.

[Montegriffo]

I really enjoyed Egypt too. I spent a month there mostly travelling along the Nile. Could still go into the tomb of king Tut which is out of bounds now. They have built a replica for tourists to protect the original.

[Martin Hash]

How much of the treasure was looted? I was there in the 90's and it was quite a grand affair. A nice colonial era building which was well maintained.

One smash and the doors caved in. Nothing was behind modern security glass or fences. They just busted the tops of the displays & scooped out everything they could carry. A lot of it was recovered via eBay stings & the like, but much of it is still in the wind.

[Montegriffo]

How much of the treasure was looted? I was there in the 90's and it was quite a grand affair. A nice colonial era building which was well maintained.

One smash and the doors caved in. Nothing was behind modern security glass or fences. They just busted the tops of the displays & scooped out everything they could carry. A lot of it was recovered via eBay stings & the like, but much of it is still in the wind.

Bloody shame, such little respect for the heritage of the country. Most of the Arabs aren't descended from the ancient Egyptians so don't see it as their culture or history. The Nubians and Coptic Christians were the nicest locals I met. Bedouin in the Sinai were a nice bunch though and they had the best grass.

[Okeefenokee]

Again, can we make this a capital crime?

[BjornP]

Bloody shame, such little respect for the heritage of the country. Most of the Arabs aren't descended from the ancient Egyptians so don't see it as their culture or history. The Nubians and Coptic Christians were the nicest locals I met. Bedouin in the Sinai were a nice bunch though and they had the best grass.

Most Egyptians actually descended from the same Egyptians that always been there. They're just Arabized to various degrees depending on wether they're Coptic or Muslim. Anyway, preservation or respect of history just isn't ingrained in most of the Arab world, even one as steeped in history as Egypt. They're like Europe before the Rennaisance, just using the stones of ancient temples to plug a hole in their walls at home, or melt down thousand year old gold coins. Also doesn't help that there's alot of money to be made selling to private collectors. Saudi Arabia is even more grotesque. They've destroyed several ancient buildings connected to the history of Islam, and even wanted to destroy Muhammed's tomb. All based on a reading of the Koran where they interpret reverence of the past, in the form of historical places, as a form of idolatry. Wahhabism, everyone! :slowclap: :facepalm:

[Montegriffo]

Bloody shame, such little respect for the heritage of the country. Most of the Arabs aren't descended from the ancient Egyptians so don't see it as their culture or history. The Nubians and Coptic Christians were the nicest locals I met. Bedouin in the Sinai were a nice bunch though and they had the best grass.

Most Egyptians actually descended from the same Egyptians that always been there. They're just Arabized to various degrees depending on wether they're Coptic or Muslim. Anyway, preservation or respect of history just isn't ingrained in most of the Arab world, even one as steeped in history as Egypt. They're like Europe before the Rennaisance, just using the stones of ancient temples to plug a hole in their walls at home, or melt down thousand year old gold coins. Also doesn't help that there's alot of money to be made selling to private collectors. Saudi Arabia is even more grotesque. They've destroyed several ancient buildings connected to the history of Islam, and even wanted to destroy Muhammed's tomb. All based on a reading of the Koran where they interpret reverence of the past, in the form of historical places, as a form of idolatry. Wahhabism, everyone! :slowclap: :facepalm:

One of the things I saw was a couple of guys slapping some cement into the cracks of a 4000 year old temple in Aswan. Another was a boat trip to snorkel around some corral islands in the Red Sea where you could see the damage done to the corral by the anchors and chains of the tourist boats. While we were marvelling at all the brightly coloured little fish the crew were up the front of the boat catching them and frying them up for our lunch. Egyptians were great at parting tourists from their money but not so good at preserving the things which brought them there in the first place. I feel for them now the tourist trade is just a shadow of what it was when I went there and looting and desecrating the past is not going to help bring the trade back. After oil, tourism was Egypt's next biggest income. More poverty is not going to help stabilise the country.