Overview
- Egypt staged a three-day inauguration with invited heads of state, declared Saturday a holiday and showed the ceremony on public screens in Cairo.
- The museum debuts the full Tutankhamun assemblage of about 5,300 objects, including roughly 2,000 items never before exhibited and the golden funerary mask.
- Operators say the complex contains more than 100,000 artifacts across twelve halls and describe it as the world’s largest archaeological museum, with a site footprint compared to the Louvre.
- Authorities present the project as a driver for tourism at the Giza plateau and as a tool to better regulate visits to the pyramids and the Sphinx.
- Nefertiti’s famous bust remains in Berlin, and tours at the new museum encourage visitors to sign a petition supporting Egypt’s bid for its return.