GEM Background

GEM ------ Light a Timeless Surface

The aim behind establishing the Grand Egyptian Museum is to create a state-of-the-art museum of exhibits and facilities, which accommodates the chronological story of Ancient Egypt, and provides access to information and future knowledge. With the support of new technologies, visitors can obtain more information in the latest forms and ways, enabling the Grand Egyptian Museum to be an enjoyable, entertaining, educational and cultural experience for all visitors.

The Vision

The unique legacy of the most ancient of civilizations needed to be presented within a single building. This edifice is a repository and a showcase for the development and achievements of Ancient Egypt. But then the question rose "How can one building span the area between heaven and earth?"

Light: The Span between Heaven & Earth

Only LIGHT can span this space between Heaven & Earth, and through light, vision is born, that which has guided the Pharaohs and all of creation.

The Grand Egyptian Museum was guided by this vision, a single source; faint yet filled with the strength to glow with the power of a thousand suns. This source was the inspiration to build this edifice and bring about its birth through an exceptional concept and an outstanding design.

The Grand Egyptian Museum a place that allows its visitors a unique experience of going back in time and navigating through the story of Ancient Egypt over the past 7000 years, and enjoying a voyage through one of the richest cultural heritage ever created.

The masterplan and landscape of the Grand Museum are perceived through light and vision. The harsh sunlight of Egypt is mediated to create a story of light modulating in quality and intensity between the sun and shade, exterior and interior, day and night.

The concept of the lighting echoes the cones of vision so that the light in the north south direction is always projected towards the pyramids, echoing the cone of vision to the pyramids. In the east west direction, the light is projected to modernity, to Cairo . The GEM lays at the intersection of modernity and Antiquity.

Across the site variation in the lighting serves to remind the visitor of their location. The color temperature of the lighting gradually changes from North to South, from the blue glow of modernity to the warm hues of antiquity, light created from fire. Lighting in the Nile Park , the infrastructural element that connects all elements of the site increases in intensity as it moves south, towards the Pyramids.

The Translucent stone wall, which changes from a stone wall during the day to an illuminated stone facade at night illuminates the Delta forecourt, the museum itself lighting the way to its’ Entrance..

MAIN BUILDING SHOWING ALIGMNMENT TO KHAFRE PYRAMID

Why the Grand Egyptian Museum ? What will happen to the current Egyptian Museum ?

When the present Egyptian Museum was inaugurated on November 15, 1902 , the building met with the requirement of the contemporary standards for air circulation and natural lighting that were then followed. Approximately 500 persons

used to visit the museum daily and 35000 artifacts were exhibited in about 15000 sq.m. The flow of findings from all parts of the country during the first half of the last century filled the museum with more than a hundred and sixty thousand artifacts. The

exhibition halls became very crowded and the increasing air pollution endangered the preservation of the monuments

Exceeding annual numbers of visitors reached three million and poor air circulation, especially in the summer time, as well as inadequate services made the visit unpleasant and difficult to control. In the next coming years, visitors are expected to reach the ten million numbers.

The GEM with its updated facilities will solve the problem, and the present Cairo Egyptian Museum will retain its function as an archaeological museum maintaining and reflecting the tradition of museological ideas of the beginning of the 20th century. It will accommodate nearly 7000 artifacts from among the masterpieces of art.