What could possibly top yesterday’s visit to the pyramids and sphinx in Giza? Well, how about a return to Giza to see the fantastic new Grand Egyptian Museum (let’s just call it the GEM) to see literally thousands of priceless antiquities from all over Egypt, including the treasures found in King Tut’s tomb – which means we’d get to see the legendary solid gold mask that covered his face! So let’s go!
Right after my last Nile-side breakfast at the Intercontinental Semiramis, we drove through the morning haze (a combination of pollution and sand from the Sahara) to the GEM. Getting tickets to the extremely popular museum hadn’t been easy and I appreciate OAT’s efforts to schedule our visit for one of the less-busy days.
The GEM is located not far from the pyramids on the Giza plateau. In fact, according to the building’s architect, whose design was selected in an international competition, the pyramids inspired the overall design of the building. The construction process took over 20 years to complete. The official full opening of the GEM took place on November 1, 2025, which made my trip to Egypt extremely well-timed.
The GEM is the largest museum in the world dedicated to ancient Egyptian civilization and it uses the latest in technology and design to bring the story of ancient Egypt, from prehistory to the end of the Greek and Roman period, to visitors.
Standing in the expansive entrance courtyard, I noticed right away that the façade is covered with triangles that echo the shape of the pyramids. Hussein called our attention to an empty space on the façade where one of the triangles seemed to be missing. He then explained the reason: Twice a year, the sun passes through the missing section and illuminates the face of the colossal statue of Ramses II that stands just inside the entrance.
Before we entered the building, we stopped to examine the hanging obelisk of Ramses II that is displayed in the courtyard. He was so intent on making sure that future rulers wouldn’t erase his name that he had his cartouche carved into the underside of the obelisk.
The great pharaoh Ramses II majestically commands the museum’s entrance atrium. The monumental statue weighs 83 tons. It originally stood near the Great Temple of the god Ptah in ancient Memphis, just across the Nile from modern-day Cairo. At the time of its discovery in 1820, it was broken into six pieces but it looks fine now.
We paused next at the Victory Column of Merenptah, son of Ramses II. It commemorates his battles against the Libyans and the Sea People c. 1213-1203 BCE.
Walking through the crowds toward the Grand Staircase, I noticed two granite statues that had been rescued from the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria. They date from Ptolemaic times and the signage (helpfully in English as well as Arabic) indicated that the identity of the figures is unknown.
The Grand Staircase, which leads to galleries on several levels, is one of the architectural highlights of the GEM. Calling it “grand” is not an exaggeration. It’s 64 meters (210 feet) long and rises to a height of 24 meters (79 feet). The width is 85 meters (279 feet) at the base, narrowing to 17 meters (nearly 56 feet) at the top. The staircase serves as a vertical gallery. Along its 108 steps, over 60 large-scale artifacts are arranged in chronological order, giving an overview of ancient Egyptian history. By the way, it’s not necessary to climb up the entire way. At several points, you can opt to take a moving inclined walkway or an elevator.
One of the first statues we encountered on the Grand Staircase was this granite statue of Thutmose III. Found at Karnak, the statue depicts the pharaoh seated on a throne.
Also on the Grand Staircase is this standing statue of Hatshepsut. She is portrayed with a combination of feminine traits along with masculine royal symbols (false beard, nemes headcloth, and royal kilt). The statue was discovered at her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri (Thebes/Luxor).
Moving up the staircase, we found another statue of Thutmose III, taken from the Great Temple of Amun at Karnak. There’s a possibility that the statue was originally made for Hatshepsut. There are traces of another name still visible in a roughed out area around the cartouche on the belt.
The unique Amara style can be seen in this head of a colossal statue of Akhenaten. Note the narrow almond shaped eyes and elongated face. It would have been placed in front of a temple to the sun god Aten.
The Sphinx of Amenemhat III, a pharaoh from the Middle Kingdom, also sits on the Grand Staircase. It was found in Tanis, which is in the delta region. The granite statue has a lion’s body and the king’s head. It has more well-defined features than the Old Kingdom Great Sphinx we saw yesterday on the Giza plateau.
A Middle Kingdom granite doorway from an unknown palace in Lower Egypt stands just behind the sphinx.
This is the top of a red granite obelisk erected by Hatshepsut at the Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. The original design showing the queen was altered, probably by her successor, Thutmose III.
We had only seen a small number of the artifacts on the Grand Staircase before Hussein hurried us over to a series of moving walkways that ascended to the top level of the museum where the treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamen were on display. His strategy allowed us to view the spectacular collection before the biggest crowds arrived. Here are just a few of the artifacts that were found in King Tut’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Below is a beautifully painted jewelry box showing Tut chasing Nubians, Levantines, lions, and desert animals. At both ends of the box, he’s shown as a sphinx trampling foreigners.
These are gilded chariots, made of gold leaf or pure gold. By the way, the Egyptians didn’t know about wheel or horses until they were invaded by the Hyksos in the 17th century BCE.
There was a complete range of household items, including several alabaster jars.
In addition, there were beds, headrests, chairs and stools, and chests and footrests. The surfaces were decorated with ivory, glass, gold and silver leaf, and semi-precious stones. Hinges and doors were made of gold, copper, and bronze.
These couches were used during the mummification process.
The golden throne of King Tut was found in the antechamber of the tomb. It’s made of wood covered with sheets of gold and inlaid with glass, faience, and semi-precious stones. The king and queen are pictured on the front of the backrest. The footprints on the foot rest represent the traditional enemies of Egypt. Since they’re placed at his feet, the king can symbolically trample them.
In the burial chamber of the tomb, archaeologists found this beautiful travertine (Egyptian alabaster) cup in the shape of a lotus flower attached to a table-like base. When the cup is lit up, you can see a scene of Tut and Ankhesenamun, his Great Royal Wife. Like Tut, she was the child of Akhenaten. This means they were either full or half-siblings. (Nefertiti was either Tut’s mother or stepmother.) After Tut’s death, Ankhesenamun was forced to marry his successor, the powerful vizier (prime minister) of the kingdom, Ay. There is archaeological evidence that she appealed for help from outside the kingdom in an attempt to avoid the marriage. Nothing is known about her fate after this point.
Of course, there was a stunning collection of jewelry.
There were even games, such as senet, a game that all Egyptians used to play.
Boats would carry the king to the afterlife.
Labor would be done by the 413 shabti figures.
And there was much, much more, including actual food to be used for offerings to the gods. This included meat, fish, and poultry; molasses in jars; honey; salted cheese; lentils; and seeds of corn and wheat. In total, over 9000 objects were crammed into the tomb. I recalled from our visit to the Valley of Kings that Tut died unexpectedly at a young age and had to be buried hastily before his own royal tomb was finished. Therefore, a smaller existing tomb was used. Many Egyptologists believe that this tomb was originally intended for Ay, the elderly vizier, who married Tut’s widow, thereby becoming the next pharaoh. Later, Ay was buried in the larger royal tomb. Hmmm. That makes me wonder about the theory that Tut was murdered.
And now it’s time to take a look at the truly spectacular treasures that were found in Tut’s burial chamber. First of all, there were four nested burial shrines. The gilded wooden shrines held the stone sarcophagus and the coffins. The outermost shrine was enormous. It measured about 9 feet high and 16 feet long, and was decorated with symbols of Isis and Osiris.
Inside the outermost shrine, the next two shrines were decorated with scenes, hieroglyphs, and magic spells intended to guide the pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife.
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| 2nd shrine (and detail) |
3rd shrine (and detail)
Finally, we came to the innermost shrine.
4th (innermost) shrine
Inside the innermost shrine was the heavy stone sarcophagus. With its lid, it weighed about 1 metric ton (about 2200 pounds). And inside the sarcophagus were three nested anthropoid (human-shaped) coffins. The outer and middle coffins were made of wood covered with gold foil and hammered sheet gold. They were decorated with semi-precious stones and colored glass. The king is shown as a mummy with his hands crossed over his chest. This is the outermost coffin.
The middle coffin is pictured below.
The innermost coffin is made of solid gold, decorated with lapis, carnelian, and turquoise. It shows the king’s hands holding the royal crook and flail. The coffin weighed about 243 pounds and the mummy was placed inside this coffin.
The spectacular solid gold burial mask was placed directly over the head and shoulders of Tut’s mummy. It’s lavishly decorated with glass, lapis lazuli, obsidian, carnelian, faience, and quartzite. You have to stand in a queue to get up close to the mask and museum guards limit the time you can spend in front of it.
Also in the burial chamber was the canopic chest. The alabaster chest contained four solid gold miniature coffins placed in four cylindrical hollows. The mini-coffins held the king’s vital organs. The hollows were topped with stoppers in the form of royal heads.
Two life-size standing statues to protect the king stood outside the sealed burial chamber.
After marveling at the treasures from Tut’s tomb, I had a quick lunch and spent some time exploring other galleries in the museum. I appreciated the timelines and other graphic displays throughout the GEM that helped me keep track of the chronology of ancient Egypt’s long history. This group of figures comes from an early period.
My favorite Old Kingdom pharaoh, King Snefaru (4th dynasty), was represented by a limestone stela bearing his cartouche and by a life-size statue of his image. He reigned in the 26th century BCE.
Not everything in the museum related to royalty. There were plenty of artifacts that revealed what life was like to ordinary Egyptians. This painting on limestone of men herding wild animals dates back to the latter half of the Old Kingdom, c. 2686-2181 BCE.
From the Middle Kingdom, here’s a limestone stela with a painted scene showing the pharaoh Intef and his wife along with other family members who have come to pay homage to them.
Also from the Middle Kingdom, this seated statue of the pharaoh Amenemhat III (12th dynasty) was found in his pyramid complex. It’s not intended to be a realistic portrayal of the king. The large ears are meant to indicate that he was a good listener.
Artifacts from the New Kingdom included this statue of the High Priest of Amun, dedicated at Karnak temple. He is shown as a scribe who is protected by a baboon representing Thoth, the god of writing, wisdom, magic, and the moon.
This larger than life-size kneeling statue of New Kingdom ruler Hatshepsut was found at her mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahri. She is offering nu pots to the state god Amun-Re. Nu pots are the type of jars used to hold liquid ritual offerings, such as milk, wine, or water.
By mid-afternoon, I had reached my saturation point. There was simply too much to absorb and digest in a single visit to the GEM. This day was the perfect ending to an incomparable trip that exceeded all of my expectations. I’m so grateful to my wonderful tour leader, Hussein Abulella, to my fun-loving group of fellow travelers, and to all of the good-hearted people I met on my travels through Egypt.
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