The GEM of Egypt: An (Almost) New Museum

I was in Jerusalem for an archaeological dig in June of 2025 when Iran started sending barrages of missiles toward Israel. Every night I woke to bomb sirens and explosions, sometimes multiple times in one night. Each morning, I checked the news to see if any buildings had been hit in the night and how many people had been killed. It was a tense time. I was reasonably safe in Jerusalem, but my friends and family at home worried about me, and I was a little worried, too.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). There is a connection. I had always wanted to visit Egypt and never had the chance. However, due to the bombings, the Israeli airport in Tel Aviv closed down and cancelled my flight home. My team thought about crossing into Jordan and flying out of Amman, but Jordanian airspace was closed, too. And so together with my archaeological team, I headed south to Egypt. We crossed the border on foot and took a bus across the Sinai Peninsula. We arrived in Cairo late at night and spent the night there. I had booked a flight for that afternoon, leaving the morning free. And that is how I very unexpectedly got the chance to visit the GEM. 

The views expressed in this article reflect those of the author mentioned and not necessarily those of New Creation.

The GEM is a brand-new archaeological museum located on the Giza Plateau in Cairo. It is so new, in fact, that when I visited, it was not yet officially open. Construction on the museum began in 2005, and it was originally scheduled for completion in 2013. However, due to various delays and political unrest in the region, the museum postponed the grand opening time and again. Finally, in 2023, the GEM did a soft launch and opened parts of the museum to the public even though not all the exhibits were complete. However, at long last, the GEM in all its glory is celebrating its grand opening and will be officially and fully open to the public starting November 4, 2025. 

Touring the Museum

When I visited this past summer, the museum was still in the soft-launch stage and not all the exhibits were open yet. Even so, it was well worth the visit. 

When I walked into the GEM, an impressive 36-foot-tall statue of Ramesses II greeted me. The museum is large, modern, and very impressive. A slow-moving escalator took me up a staircase filled with ancient statues and monuments, many of which are famous historical artifacts. Several landings along the staircase allowed access to a variety of exhibits. 

When I arrived at the top of the staircase, the Giza pyramids loomed into view through large picture windows. The main exhibit, which is located on the top floor, flows well. It consists of 12 galleries divided into four sections of three galleries each. The four sections represent groupings of archaeological periods: Prehistoric through First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom through Second Intermediate Period, New Kingdom, and Third Intermediate Period through Graeco-Roman Period. Artifacts from each section are subdivided into three galleries: society, kingship, and belief. 

As I walked through the museum, I found myself pulled from one artifact to the next. The museum is full of the wonders of ancient Egypt. Items that I recognized appeared in cases with rows of similar artifacts. It was exciting and overwhelming. I took so many photos that I used up my phone’s battery and the battery of my portable phone charger.

There are several secondary exhibit halls in the GEM museum, but not all of them were open yet when I visited. One of those secondary exhibits is a King Tut exhibit, which should contain over 5000 artifacts from King Tutenkhamen’s tomb.

The GEM is well worth visiting for anyone interested in Egyptian history. I look forward to returning to visit the fully-open museum. I can’t wait to see the parts of the museum that weren’t open when I visited. I also want to go back through the main exhibit halls, because there is so much there that I couldn’t take it all in.

You can find more information about the GEM here.