In with the new at the ancient Giza pyramids

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2 days ago

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The Grand Egyptian Museum.
Anthony Flint
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Touted as the largest archeological museum in the world, the project started way back in 2005, when the decision was made to decant some 100,000 artifacts from the cluttered, colonial-era Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo to a roomy, state-of-the-art exhibition space on 120 acres next door to one of world's most visited ancient sites. The new curation, at nearly 900,000 square feet, twice the size of the Louvre, organizes the sarcophagi, statues, furnishings, and other treasures by chronology and theme — beginning thousands of years before the birth of Christ, and categorized under headings such as society, kinship, and belief. The new museum is also set to include items from King Tutankhamun's tomb, though the legendary golden funerary mask and gilded coffin is still back in the old museum at Tahir Square.
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The newness of it all — contemporary architecture rising from the desert, far from the centuries-old chaos of Old Cairo — is immediately apparent upon alighting from a $5 Uber from downtown. It's a bit of a hike from the curb across an expansive plaza to a long row of dozens of turnstiles, installed in anticipation of the hoped-for 5 million annual visitors – though at the time of my visit, during the soft opening of 12 galleries in November of last year, I had them all to myself.
The main entrance is marked by a tilted façade protrusion of stylized hieroglyphics and illuminated panels that mimic the shape of the ancient structures in the distance — and indeed, as readily becomes apparent, the triangle form is repeated throughout the complex. It's a theatrical start, as visitors pass by a 'hanging' elevated obelisk, and tuck under a little copycat pyramid that appears to be lifted up at the base.
The Grand Egyptian Museum.
Anthony Flint
Once inside the cavernous atrium, after the all-important information desk, visitors confront the 36-foot-tall, 3,000-year-old statue of Ramses the Great, the infamous ruler of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty, which has been transferred from an outdoor location in Cairo. This is where the phones start to get whipped out in earnest.
Extensive options for eating and drinking and shopping are available just after Ramses, including a spiffy
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Then it's on to the four floors of the galleries, accessed either by a grand staircase or a slow-moving escalator. I chose to take the people-mover all the way to the top, for a stirring view of the Giza pyramids framed like a movie screen by giant windows, with soon-to-be-opened gardens in the foreground. I toggled between snaps of the mighty, mystical testaments of ancient civilization and news updates of what was going on back home, as I happened to visit the day after the US elections.
Trying to stay focused, I descended to take in the exhibits, which does require significant museum stamina. Wisely, the curators have sprinkled in tasteful multimedia displays showing how the Giza complex was built over some 500 years, a contemporary diorama of what village life was like thousands of years ago, and a recreation of the chapel of Khnumhotep II, a chief associated with the Middle Kingdom pharaohs honored with elaborately decorated tombs south of the site down the Nile. Painted figures on the walls come to life in a virtual animation reminiscent of scenes from 'Night at the Museum.'
Tourism is a huge part of Egypt's economy, with an estimated 15 million visitors last year. The modernization of the visitor experience at Giza is part of an ambition to double that number.
The Grand Egyptian Museum.
Anthony Flint
Egypt is all about the future in other ways, too, right now. There's an incredible urban expansion underway, with skyscrapers, housing, new commercial areas, government offices, a convention center, and a monorail, all conjured out of the vast empty desert east of downtown Cairo. The new frontier, funded by China, the International Monetary Fund, and other sources, is designed for a growing population that can't be accommodated within the confines of the old metropolis. The new construction is mostly unoccupied at the moment, giving everything a ghost-city vibe, but the urban planners are convinced that will be temporary.
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The Grand Egyptian Museum is very much a part of that in-with-the-new mindset. A Boston antecedent might be the Museum of Fine Arts, which was relocated from Back Bay to Huntington Avenue — at the time viewed as a desolate outpost. Skeptics may have questioned whether the museum could possibly make use of all that space way out west of the city, but just look at it now.
A few weeks after my visit, a new tomb was discovered near Luxor and the Valley of the Kings – that of King Thutmose II, from the dynasty that reigned through two centuries between about 1550 BC and 1292 BC. It was the first royal Egyptian tomb to be discovered since King Tutankhamun's burial chamber was found in 1922. Just recently, another team revealed evidence of a hidden city and extensive infrastructure underground, beneath the pyramids. So who knows — if these teams of Indiana Jones-caliber archaeologists keep it up, there might even be a need for a new wing. Happily, there's plenty of space.
Anthony Flint is a writer in Brookline. He can be reached at [e-mail].