The Grand Egyptian Museum, a $1 billion (€862 million) project, is a monumental museum dedicated to its ancient civilisation.

Axar.az reports that after 20 years in the making, the billion-dollar Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Cairo opened on Saturday.

The GEM is the world's largest museum dedicated to an ancient civilisation, and showcases 50,000 artefacts, including the entire collection of treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamun, many of which are displayed for the first time.

The president's office praised the GEM as “an exceptional event in the history of human culture and civilisation,” and in a post on X, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi applauded the fact that the museum "brings together the genius of ancient Egyptians and the creativity of modern Egyptians".

The museum is expected to attract 5 million visitors annually, Egyptian businessman and member of the GEM's board of trustees, Sir Mohamed Mansour, said, adding to the impact it will have on the country's economy. Such figures would place the GEM among the world’s leading museums. For comparison, in 2024, the Louvre in Paris welcomed 8.7 million visitors, the British Museum 6.5 million, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art 5.7 million.