Attendees at GEM’S opening ceremony praised its elaborate performances

The opening ceremony was nothing short of lavish. It included a number of elaborate performances that were widely praised by attendees who spoke to The National, as well as many who watched it online and on television.

Cairo on Saturday opened the doors of the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum, a billion-dollar showcase of pharaonic grandeur that Egypt hopes will help revive tourism and boost its economy.

The museum, 2km from the Great Pyramid in Giza, hosted what was been described as “a night to remember” by the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy.

With years of anticipation, delays and meticulous preparation culminating in this moment, the museum’s inauguration was a defining chapter in Egypt’s cultural and tourist history.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi addressed the evening event and hailed the museum as opening a "new chapter" for the nation. Egypt was "writing a new chapter in the story of this ancient nation's present and future," he told the gathered crowd, which included 79 international delegations, including 39 heads of state and government.

“This museum is not just a place to preserve valuable antiquities, it is living proof of the genius of the Egyptians who built the pyramids and etched immortality on the walls of its temples," Mr El Sisi said.

"The success that we are inaugurating today was the result of massive international co-operation with a number of companies and organisations. We do not forget the great help that our friend, the nation of Japan, gave to this enormous civilisational project."

Japan financially and technically assisted in building the museum, which spreads across nearly half a million square metres. Delegations from Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and the Gulf attended, according to the Egyptian presidency.

The performances included the debut of a special orchestra piece written for the opening by renowned Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih in addition to an elaborate costumed dance performance, which featured several Egyptian celebrities dressed in pharaonic garb.

The much-anticipated opening, postponed five times since 2020 due to various crises including the Covid-19 pandemic and multiple wars in the region, necessitated the closure of large portions of the city as hundreds of security and traffic teams were deployed in the area to close off a number of strategic roads.

However, the ceremony was also broadcast on large screens mounted all over the city to ensure the public a chance to view the ceremony.

Despite the screens, however, many of the residential buildings in the areas around the museum including the lower-income neighbourhoods of Faisal and Hadayek Al Ahram could be seen in their balconies hoping to catch a glimpse of the commotion around the museum today.

Residents of both neighbourhoods told The National on Saturday that police officers had visited their homes over the past three days to inform those who lived on streets leading to the museum that they were not allowed to leave their neighbourhoods until Sunday.

The GEM houses more than 100,000 artefacts, half of which will be on display, making it the world's largest collection devoted to a single civilisation, President El Sisi said in his speech.

Ahead of Mr El Sisi's appearance, planes flew over the Giza plateau bearing banners that read "Welcome to the Land of Peace", a repurposed version of the slogan used at the Sharm El Sheikh Peace Summit when Mr El Sisi hosted more than 20 leaders for the signing of a declaration of peace between Israel and Gaza in October.

A large-scale beautification campaign was launched ahead of the opening that has rendered many of Giza's streets virtually unrecognisable as pavements were repainted, old road signs replaced and hundreds of decorative trees planted.

Inside, visitors will enter vast, light-filled halls with soaring ceilings and sand-coloured stone walls that echo the surrounding desert.

Among its highlights are a colossal statue of Ramses II in the atrium, a hanging obelisk dedicated to the same king, and a “Journey to Eternity” staircase lined with statues of gods and pharaohs.

For many who have been awaiting the museum’s inauguration for decades, this will be not just a moment of celebration but also one of reflection.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi wrote on social media before the event that the museum will bring "together the genius of ancient Egyptians and the creativity of modern Egyptians, enhancing the world culture and art with a new landmark that will attract all those who cherish civilisation and knowledge.”

Farouq Hosny, Egypt's former culture minister, recounts the unusual genesis of the landmark.

As he tells it, the idea came to him when a prominent Italian publisher and graphic designer, Franco Maria Ricci, provoked him during a conversation in Paris by calling the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in central Cairo a “storage warehouse”.

“To my own surprise, the anger I felt prompted me to tell him that we plan to build the world's largest museum in Egypt,” Mr Hosny, who was culture minister between 1987 and 2011, told The National.

“That was in 1992, and we certainly were not building or even thinking of building anything at the time. But I made that up because I was so angry. He then asked where will the museum be, and I said it will be near the pyramids.”

In recent years, tourism in Egypt has shown signs of recovery, with 15 million visitors in the first nine months of 2025 and generating $12.5 billion, up 21 per cent from a year earlier.