Opening of Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, built by Belgian company Besix

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will be officially opened on Saturday evening in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, in the presence of King Philippe and prime minister Bart De Wever. The museum was built by the Belgian construction company Besix.

Work on the museum, located not far from the pyramids of Giza, took decades. Construction was delayed by, among other things, the Arab Spring and the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, the museum cost more than a billion dollars.

The Belgian construction company Besix, headquartered in the Brussels municipality Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, was not only responsible for the construction, but also for lighting, air conditioning, ICT and the transport of some of the most important pieces. The GEM even called on Besix for the labels in the museum rooms.

The Belgian company previously helped build the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, still the tallest skyscraper in the world. Later this year, Besix will complete in Abu Dhabi the Zayed National Museum and, in 2026, the new Guggenheim museum. Besix also helped build several stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The new museum in Cairo, which will be open to the public from Tuesday, is expected to further stimulate tourism. The main attraction is the treasure of Tutankhamun, which was discovered in 1922 in an intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Upper Egypt, containing almost 5,000 funerary objects. In total, the GEM houses more than 100,000 artefacts, half of which will be on display. It is the largest collection in the world dedicated to a single civilisation.

^{Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouli speaks to the press prior to the official opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) © PHOTO Khaled DESOUKI / AFP}