|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The new Egyptian Museum – officially known as The Grand Egyptian Museum – is definitely very grand, reports east Auckland writer ROBYN YOUSEF.
It’s been built in alignment with the world-renowned Pyramids of Giza and has been dubbed the “fourth Pyramid of Egypt”.
My husband Adel and I were among the lucky ones, visiting the stunning new museum before its official opening when we were there during its “trial period”.
The design of the new museum by an Irish firm includes an amazing exterior of limestone and glass decorated with triangular features and hieroglyphics.
At a cost of more than US$1 billion, it’s now the world’s largest archaeological museum.
During my OE in London, I met an Egyptian student and we were married more than 50 years ago in Cairo before returning to settle in New Zealand.
We lived very near the old Cairo Museum between 1974 until 1978.
While making the obligatory visits with our overseas visitors, I was not seized by an interest in Egyptology until the 1980s when my own children were studying Egypt at school.
Visiting Egypt back in the 1980s and ’90s, I managed to spend hours in the old museum – which still stands proudly in the city centre – viewing the incredible treasures.
You’re soon jolted back into reality when stepping outside into the mad chaos and noise of Cairo, a city of more than 20 million inhabitants.
But, with the new building you walk out into a beautiful courtyard where that sense of history continues with the world’s only hanging obelisk from Ramses II on a base with four pillars that are carved with the name of Egypt in many languages.
The light streams through the new building with its lofty vaulted ceilings and huge windows.
And because most of the exhibits are freestanding, you can take in the objects from every angle. Labelling and lighting are top-notch.
You’re greeted in the large and airy atrium by a very impressive 12-metre-tall, 3200-year-old statue of Ramses II.
He used to guard the Cairo Railway Station, but the grandeur of the piece is perfectly suited to his new setting.
The new museum includes 12 galleries covering three themes: society, kingship, and belief.
It covers four time periods from prehistory to the Greco-Roman era.
And while it highlights the times of the pharaohs, it also shows how the ordinary people lived in ancient Egypt.
From Ramses II, the Grand Staircase, with a moving staircase alongside, welcomes visitors to 12 galleries with ancient statues and sculptures arranged chronologically on the broad stairs.
And when reaching the top there’s a breathtaking moment when through a huge window the magnificent Pyramids of Giza come into view – linking Egypt’s glorious past to the present perfectly.
- After 20 years of planning, The Grand Egyptian Museum officially opens on July 3, following its partial opening last October. Celebrations will include a spectacular display of Egypt’s history and tourist attractions spanning several days.
