Egypt plans new museum in shadow of pyramids

Egypt has announced it will build one of the largest museums in the world by 2010 to provide a home for its famous antiquities.

The Great Egyptian Museum is to be built in the shadow of the pyramids near Cairo.

The museum will replace the present Egyptian Museum, in the centre of Cairo, which can exhibit only a fraction of the artifacts it holds.

The project, to cost about $550 million US, should be complete by 2010, according to project director Dr. Yasser Mansour. He was in London recently to unveil plans for the project.

Egypt has been planning the project since 1992, but it has been delayed by lack of funding. Dublin-based architects Heneghan Peng won an international competition for the design in May 2003.

London-based firm Metaphor has since been appointed master planner and lead exhibition designer. Work on the main museum building should start in 2007.

The Great Egyptian Museum will have the capacity to exhibit 100,000 artifacts, making it larger than the British Museum, which has 80,000 artifacts on display.

By locating it at Giza, 15 kilometres south of Cairo next to the pyramids, Egypt hopes to create an attraction that will draw five million visitors a year.

The new museum features an entranceway of translucent stone and panoramic views of the pyramids themselves as visitors move into the exhibit spaces.

The Great Egyptian Museum will have capacity for 15,000 visitors a day and house an archeological research institute as well as extensive storage.

For the first time, Egypt will have a grand exhibit hall to display the treasures of King Tutankhamun, one of its best-known collections.

A King Tut exhibit that's currently touring the U.S. has been organized as a fund-raiser for the museum project. It has brought in $30 million US so far. The Egyptian government is paying most of the cost of the new museum, but there is also backing from Japanese investors.

The original Egyptian Museum, built in 1902, is antiquated and cannot provide the climate control or innovative exhibits that are expected of modern museums. It has tens of thousands of artifacts in storage.

Much of its collection is likely to be moved to the new museum, which could also gather artifacts from regional museums. The old museum might remain open and retain a smaller collection.