{"id":917,"date":"2025-11-24T16:18:38","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=917"},"modified":"2025-11-24T16:18:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T16:18:38","slug":"my-honest-review-of-the-1000000000-grand-egyptian-museum-that-took-20-years-to-build","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badvibes.live\/?p=917","title":{"rendered":"My honest review of the $1,000,000,000 Grand Egyptian Museum that took 20 years to build"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just two weeks after opening, I\u2019m stepping foot inside the biggest museum on the planet dedicated to a single civilisation: The Grand Egyptian Museum (or simply, the GEM).<\/p>\n

Taking over two decades to build and costing over $1 billion (more than double its initial price tag), I had to find out: was it all worth it?<\/p>\n

Before you\u2019ve even reached the entrance, you (or, ideally, your taxi driver) will have battled\u00a0Cairo<\/a>\u2019s racing traffic in the hope of finding a way in.<\/p>\n

There may be several entrances and car parks, but the order of accessing the place is borderline unhinged.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You look up and are immediately dwarfed by the state-of-the-art behemoth ahead.<\/p>\n

Sprawling across the equivalent of 70 football pitches, the GEM houses 100,000 artefacts, including the full Tutankhamun collection \u2014 sarcophagus and all.<\/p>\n

The building is, undeniably, phenomenal. Designed by a then-small Dublin-based studio, it has been constructed to perfectly align with the pyramids, echoing their geometry and accompanied by views impossible to ignore.<\/p>\n

Every detail has been obsessively considered, right down to using only eco-friendly materials throughout.<\/p>\n

Still, I couldn\u2019t help feeling like I\u2019d paid to walk through a very beautiful episode of\u00a0Grand Designs<\/a>\u00a0rather than a museum celebrating millennia of history.<\/p>\n

Once inside, you\u2019re met by a 12-metre-tall statue of Ramses II watching your every move as you scan your \u00a323 ticket and step through the turnstile.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The entrance hall is vast and impressive\u2026 yet oddly empty.<\/p>\n

To the side, crowded and overpriced\u00a0coffee<\/a>\u00a0shops and a Ladur\u00e9e sign (who goes to\u00a0Egypt<\/a>\u00a0and eats macarons?) snaps you back to reality before you begin the climb up the main staircase towards the galleries.<\/p>\n

Here, the architectural storytelling of architects R\u00f3is\u00edn Heneghan and Shi\u2011Fu Peng shines.<\/p>\n

Three layers of statues line the escalators up to the main galleries, each part reflecting the stages of life as you rise higher towards the sky: from mere mortals, to death, to being among the Gods. Nice.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But, once you reach the top and have finished admiring the view, it\u2019s hard not to notice the mismatch between the colossal halls and the comparatively modest displays.<\/p>\n

Even the largest of artefacts look small here.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the crowd.<\/p>\n

I visited late morning on a weekday, and it was bedlam.<\/p>\n

Families, tour groups and history buffs swarm every placard and interactive screen, making it impossible to understand what you\u2019re even looking at.<\/p>\n

Fingerprints smear every inch of glass, making it also impossible to get a decent photo for the \u2018gram.<\/p>\n

My guide mentions that after 1pm, residents can get in for a reduced price \u2014 brilliant for accessibility (although there are reports that 350 EGP for a resident is still too expensive), less brilliant for crowd control.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This also explained the hundreds of people crowding outside the main entrance, all waiting for the clock to strike one. Time your visit well\u2026 or prepare for more chaos.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Tutankhamun is the museum\u2019s crown jewel.<\/p>\n

A perfectly curated display of all of King Tut\u2019s bits and pieces that are finally housed together in one place.<\/p>\n

But the sheer volume of visitors makes it difficult to take in. The \u2018queue\u2019 to see his funerary mask is so poorly managed, it makes the battle to catch a glimpse of\u00a0Mona Lisa<\/a>\u00a0at the Louvre look like a walk in the park.<\/p>\n

In its initial days of opening, the museum had to be closed due to overcrowding and overselling of tickets. With a maximum capacity of 20,000, there were up to 28,000 visitors at one time. Yikes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Another must-see is the Boat Gallery, a separate building that showcases a completely reconstructed ancient vessel.<\/p>\n

The photos of how it was found make it look like the world\u2019s oldest and most remarkable piece of flat-pack furniture. With no IKEA instructions in sight, conservators are painstakingly piecing together the second vessel right in front of you.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re lucky enough to visit Cairo, you\u00a0should<\/em>\u00a0see the GEM.<\/p>\n

But pre-book a snapshot tour, eat and drink beforehand, and brace yourself (mentally and physically) for the Tutankhamun-exhibition-cum-Hunger-Games.<\/p>\n

Visitor numbers are only expected to grow, though I\u2019m optimistic that things may settle in the coming months and years.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d rather something more relaxed and compact, don\u2019t miss the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perfectly sized, showcases a 35,000-year-old skeleton and is home to a crypt of world-famous mummies you can get up close and personal with hair, teeth \u2014 the lot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just two weeks after opening, I\u2019m stepping foot inside the biggest museum on the planet dedicated to a single civilisation: The Grand Egyptian Museum (or simply, the GEM). Taking over two decades to build and costing over $1 billion (more than double its initial price tag), I had to find out: was it all worth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t