The present Egyptian Museum in Cairo was designed at the end of 19th century and inaugurated on November 15th, 1902.The museum adopted a neo-classic style, keeping with its immediate architectural surroundings and reflecting the classical tendencies of many of the artifacts it was intended to house. The building was designed to facilitate the easy flow of visitors from one gallery to another, while taking into account contemporary standards of air-circulation and natural lighting.
When the museum was inaugurated it had approximately 500 visitors daily, circulating within 15,000 sqm. ; today the visitors’ number reaches 5,000 – 7,000 a day . Back then, the museum housed 35,000 artifacts ; today the museum houses more than 140.000 objects, excluding those currently stored in the basement of the building. Still more objects remain in the warehouses attached to various archaeological sites elsewhere in Egypt.
With around 2.500.000 visitors annually, over-crowding has become an inevitable problem. Consequently, the Egyptian government has allocated a piece of land, with the great pyramids of Giza as its backdrop, on which to build the Grand Egyptian Museum. The GEM is intended to house more than 100.000 artifacts.
On 4th of February 2002,the foundation stone of the Grand Egyptian museum was laid to announce to the world that Egypt is committed to build a significant cultural monumental and to send a global message that the Egyptian civilization will always be a source of enlightenment.
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