Inside world’s biggest museum built to host ‘cursed’ body of King Tut in the shadow of Egypt’s ancient pyramids
INCREDIBLE pictures have revealed the world’s biggest museum set to display more than 100,000 ancient antiquities – including secret remains from the tomb of King Tutankhamun.
Built against the backdrop of the great Egyptian pyramids, the colossal Giza Museum spreads across 90,000 square metres of area – and will open to history fanatics later this year.
The architectural marvel is being built for the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to house thousands of pharaonic artefacts from the ancient era.
The museum’s vast collection of pharaonic antiquities will include the complete collection of King Tutankhamun’s treasures from his tomb.
And many pieces are set to be displayed for the first time since archaeologists discovered them in 1922.
These include some 5000 ancient artefacts that will be relocated from an Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The golden sarcophagus of King Tut is also expected to be housed inside the museum – especially after it was brought for restoration inside one of the labs.
Many unique items will be displayed across an incredible exhibition space of more than 4,000 square metres – which architects say are almost the size of “four football pitches”.
One of the highlights of the museum is a 3,200-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Rameses II that has been placed near the Grand Staircase inside the atrium.
A ritual vessel or “solar barge” called the Khufu ship, which was buried next to the Great Pyramid in 2,500 BC, will also be on show, Deezen reports.
Interestingly, a two-kilometre-long and 500-metre-wide walkway will take the tourists directly to the nearby pyramids of Giza.
Along with the exhibition hall, a children’s museum, conference centre, auditorium, conservation spaces and gardens will also be built.
Once complete, it will snatch the world’s largest museum title from the iconic Louvre in Paris, France, which currently sits at 73,000 square metres.
Tourists and history fanatics can now visit the Great Egyptian Museum, which is offering access to limited areas ahead of the official opening.
Access is currently limited to the Grand Hall, Grand Staircase, commercial area, and exterior gardens.
GLIMPSE OF THE PAST
The grand museum has been designed in a way that pays tribute to its historic surroundings.
Shaped like a chamfered triangle, the museum aligns with the Great Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Menkaure – and is built extremely close to the great structures.
The museum’s design was picked through an international architectural competition in 2002 that attracted more than 1,500 entries from around the world.
And winning design was a brainchild of Heneghan Peng Architects in Dublin, Ireland, who are known for their unique, colossal designs.
Incredible plans for the architectural marvel were first revealed in 1992 a huge, empty site close to the Giza pyramids was secured by the then-president of Egypt Hosni Mubarak.
However, construction could only begin in 2012 – and the structural shell was completed in just three years, with the museum expected to open by 2018.
But several political and economic setbacks kept the plans on hold.
The Grand Egyptian Museum is now expected to open by the end of this year.