Grand Egyptian Museum Opening Brought Forward to 2012 as Contractors Sign New Deal

Mid-2012 was confirmed last week as the projected point of opening for the Grand Egyptian Museum, as pen was put to paper on a deal between the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and engineering firms Hill International and EHAF Consulting Engineers to commence work on stage three of Egypt’s new cultural mecca.

Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosni looked on as Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, and Raouf Ghali, board chairman of Hill International, signed the deal. Hosni stated that it will take 26 months to complete the massive building project, in the desert west of Cairo at Giza, just two kilometres from the pyramids.

With 100,000 square metres of floor space and provision for as many as 100,000 artefacts, the $550 million Grand Egyptian Museum will be the biggest cultural project in the world, according to Hosni, who called it a “cultural high dam

that fulfills Egyptians’ dreams and belongs to the whole world.” As many as 4.8 million tourists are expected to visit every year, to see exhibits such as Howard Carter’s Tutankhamun collection.

Previous estimates had put the opening date for the Grand Egyptian Museum – the foundation stone for which was laid in 2002, ten years after the project was officially announced – sometime in 2013. Egyptians, living in a country where tourism accounts for 11% of GDP, will welcome the slightly accelerated timetable for the visionary structure, which is already being heralded as “Egypt’s fourth pyramid.”

 

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