Museums: Grand Egyptian Museum progress report

Last Thursday I visited the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) to view the progress of the construction of this important new museum for Egyptian antiquities.

The amazing thing about this building is how modern the design is, and its location next to the Giza plateau, with the pyramids in the background; the museum will be facing the light with an incredible view. The GEM will be a beautiful space in which visitors can experience the art and artifacts of ancient Egypt in the shadow of the pyramids.

Phase 1 of the construction was finished some time ago, and the recently completed Phase 2 includes the building of the conservation labs, energy center, and fire station. This museum now boasts perhaps the largest museum conservation labs anywhere in the world. There is nothing comparable to the size of the storage areas and the laboratories. The storage rooms have tall, movable shelves designed for secure storage and easy access of artifacts. Storage facilities will also have carefully regulated environmental controls with different sections for different types of material, for example organic or non-organic material, or low temperature storage.

The conservation labs contain state of the art equipment for the preservation and restoration of artifacts, to make this one of the best conservation labs in the world. The Conservation Center is built 10 meters below street level so that it will blend into the natural environment as well as improve security. We are planning now to move some objects chosen from the Cairo Museum to the new lab for conservation and restoration. This way, the objects will be ready to be installed in the museum when it is completed.