CAIRO
\nPrime ministers, presidents and royalty descended on Cairo on Saturday to attend the spectacle-laden inauguration of a sprawling new billion-dollar museum built near the Pyramids to house one of the world\u2019s richest collections of antiquities.
\nThe inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, marks the end of a two-decade construction effort hampered by the Arab Spring uprisings, pandemic and wars in neighbouring countries.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve all dreamed of this project and whether it would really come true,\u201d Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly told a press conference, calling the museum a \u201cgift from Egypt to the whole world from a country whose history goes back more than 7,000 years\u201d.
\nSpectators including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi gathered late on Saturday before an enormous screen outside the museum, which projected images of the country\u2019s most famous cultural sites as dancers in glittering pharaonic-style garb waved glowing orbs and sceptres.
\n\u2018New chapter\u2019 for Egypt
\nThey were accompanied by Egyptian pop stars and an international orchestra decked out in white beneath a sky lit with lasers, fireworks and hovering lights that formed into moving hieroglyphics.
\nBy opening the museum, Egypt was \u201cwriting a new chapter in the story of this ancient nation\u2019s present and future,\u201d Sisi said at the opening.
\nThe audience included German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi, and the crown princes of Oman and Bahrain.
\nThe museum\u2019s most heavily promoted attraction is the expansive collection of treasures from Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb, uncovered in 1922, including the boy-king\u2019s golden burial mask, throne and sarcophagus, and thousands of other objects.
\nA colossal statue of Ramses II that sat for decades in a downtown Cairo square bearing the pharaoh\u2019s name now adorns the grand entry hall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CAIRO Prime ministers, presidents and royalty descended on Cairo on Saturday to attend the spectacle-laden inauguration of a sprawling new billion-dollar museum built near the Pyramids to house one of the world\u2019s richest collections of antiquities. The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, marks the end of a two-decade construction effort hampered by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":512220,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-512193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n