Work continues in the shadow of the pyramids and a statue of Ramses II in Giza, Egypt. Photo / AP
Work continues in the shadow of the pyramids and a statue of Ramses II in Giza, Egypt. Photo / AP
On the Giza Plateau outside Cairo, thousands of Egyptians are labouring in the shadow of the pyramids to erect a monument worthy of the pharaohs.
The Grand Egyptian Museum has been under construction for well over a decade and is intended to showcase Egypt's ancient treasures while drawing tourists to help fund its future development.
The project has been subject to repeated delays, with a "soft opening" planned for next year scrapped in favour of a more triumphant inauguration in 2020. Costs have soared from an initial US$650 million to well over US$1 billion, with most of the financing coming from Japan.
It's the latest mega-project to be championed by President Abdel-fattah al-Sisi, who is wagering that massive investments in infrastructure will revive an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 uprising.
The museum is a series of towering concrete halls that will eventually hold some 50,000 artifacts, including the famed mask of Tutankhamen and other treasures currently housed in the century-old Egyptian Museum in Cairo's congested Tahrir Square.
The hope is that tourists will stay awhile, and provide the foreign currency Egypt needs to buttress its economy. "It's a place where you can linger to enjoy ancient Egypt," project director Tarek Tawfik said on a tour of the site, which will also include a conference centre, a cinema, 28 shops, 10 restaurants and a hotel. Giant windows open onto the 5000-year-old pyramids, and the museum will feature an intact ship and a statue of Ramses II.
Work continues in the shadow of a statue of Pharaoh Ramses II, at the Grand Egyptian Museum, under construction in Giza, Egypt. Photo / AP
Tawfik calls it "a fantastic experience of ancient Egypt in a very modern building that provides all kind of modern, comfortable functions." That would mark a major change from the current setup, in which tourists visiting the pyramids and the Sphinx are routinely hassled by touts and camel-drivers.
Tourists are gradually returning to Egypt, but the industry has yet to recover from the 2011 uprising, which toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and ushered in a period of instability, culminating in the military overthrow of the country's first freely elected president, an Islamist whose brief rule sparked mass protests.
El-Sisi, who led the overthrow of Mohammed Morsi in 2013 and was elected the following year, has presided over an unprecedented crackdown on dissent. Political demonstrations, heavily restricted under a 2013 law, are now unheard of. A Sinai-based insurgency has carried out attacks, mainly on security forces and Christians, but has only rarely targeted foreign tourists.
El-Sisi has sought to use large-scale projects to bolster the state. An expansion of the Suez Canal in 2015 has yet to deliver the soaring revenues promised. An administrative capital under construction outside Cairo is still in the early stages, with negligible foreign investment and foreign embassies not keen to move so far into the desert. Egypt's pharaonic heritage remains a major draw, and Tawfik expects the museum to attract eight million people a year. An estimated eight million tourists will have visited Egypt in 2018, an increase from previous years but well below a peak of 14.7 million before the 2011 uprising.
Egypt's Orascom built the museum, with loans from Japan of US$320m in 2006 and US$450m in 2016. The Japanese continue to advise on development and artifact restoration, but it is unclear who will provide additional financing, with costs now estimated at US$1.1b. A bidding process is underway to find someone to operate the site.
