Egypt set to open grand museum in lavish ceremony

After years of delays, Cairo is finally set to open the Grand Egyptian Museum on Saturday -- a long-awaited, billion-dollar showcase of pharaonic grandeur that Egypt hopes will help revive tourism and boost its troubled economy.

Seventy-nine delegations, including 39 heads of state and government, are expected at the ceremony, which begins at 7:30 p.m. local time (1730 GMT).

Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Spain, and Denmark will be among those sending representatives, according to a statement from the Egyptian presidency.

In the nights leading up to the opening, shafts of light have illuminated both the pyramids and the museum's colossal facade -- a prelude to Saturday's spectacle.

Set on a gentle slope overlooking the Giza Plateau, just beyond the shadow of the pyramids, the museum was built with major financial and technical support from Japan, and spreads across nearly half a million square metres.

It 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, according to Egyptian officials.

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

At the centre of the main atrium stands an 83-tonne statue of Ramses II, the pharaoh who ruled Egypt for 66 years and presided over its golden age.

Unlike the cramped, century-old Egyptian Museum in central Cairo, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) features immersive galleries, precision lighting, virtual-reality exhibits, and even a children's museum.

One highlight is a live conservation lab, visible through floor-to-ceiling glass, where visitors can watch restorers assembling a 4,500-year-old solar boat buried near Khufu's pyramid, built to carry his soul across the sky with the sun god Ra.

The undisputed star of the show, however, is King Tutankhamun's collection of more than 5,000 objects, many displayed together for the first time.

Details of the boy pharaoh's gold mask display remain under wraps.

The museum opens to the public on Tuesday, showcasing thousands of funerary artefacts previously scattered across Egypt.

AFP