Seven things you must see at the world’s largest archaeological museum

Seven wonders within the Grand Egyptian Museum

The world’s largest archaeological museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), is officially opening next month. Here are seven of the must-see highlights.

1 Hanging obelisk

The 19-metre-tall hanging obelisk.Credit: iStock

Of the GEM’s 100,000 artefacts, only one is found outside. The 19-metre-tall obelisk, billed as the world’s first hanging obelisk, stands in the entrance courtyard atop a basalt plinth. Step into the plinth and look up through a window to view a rare carving in the base of the obelisk – a cartouche bearing the name of King Ramses II. Until the 70-tonne obelisk was placed at this spot in 2018, the carving hadn’t been seen for 3300 years.

2 Statue of Ramses II

The Statue of Ramses II is the centrepiece of the vast entry hall.Credit: Getty Images

Dominating GEM’s vast entrance hall, the 11-metre-high statue of one of the most famous of Egypt’s pharaohs was discovered in six pieces in 1882 in the former Egyptian capital of Memphis. Rebuilt, it stood sentinel in a central Cairo square for 50 years, but is now the centrepiece of a hall so capacious that the 80-tonne red-granite statue almost loses its sense of scale. Stand beneath it, however, and you’ll know you’re in the presence of ancient greatness.

3 Pyramid view

There’s an unobstructed view of the pyramids from the museum.Credit: Getty Images

The museum is only two kilometres from the Giza Pyramids (with a dedicated walkway currently being built between the two), but climb the GEM’s grand staircase to the entrance to the 12 main galleries and you come to a wide floor-to-ceiling window with an unobstructed view of the pyramids. Be prepared to stand and gawp.

4 Mask of Tutankhamun

Expect the mask to still command the crowds.Credit: Alamy

Long the item that overshadowed the 170,000 other artefacts in Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, the famous death mask of the young King Tutankhamun is shifting house to the GEM, where it will be displayed alongside 5000 other artefacts found in Tutankhamun’s Valley of the Kings tomb, including his incredible golden throne and the mummified remains of his two infant daughters. Expect the mask to still command the crowds.

5 Funerary boat of Khufu

The funerary boat of Khufu, one of the world’s oldest intact ships.

When you look through the window to the Great Pyramid, you’re looking at the tomb of the pharaoh Khufu. Discovered buried beside it in 1954 were what have become the world’s oldest intact ships – two sun boats, each neatly dismantled into 1224 pieces. One of the 43.4-metre cedar-wood ships has been painstakingly reconstructed and was so finely crafted that it’s believed it would still float if it set sail now, 4600 years after it was built. Museum goers will be able to watch restorers rebuild the other ship in a live exhibition expected to take three years.

6 Canopic chest of Hetepheres

The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines of Queen Hetepheres.

When members of Egyptian royalty were mummified, their organs were removed and stored in canopic jars or chests, which were interred with the body. The oldest-known example of mummification was that of Queen Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, and one of the most striking sights in the GEM is the alabaster chest in which her liver, lungs, stomach and intestines were stored. Peer into the chest and you can see the 4600-year-old remains of the viscera still in its square compartments.

7 Statue of the scribe Mitri

Ol’ blue eyes.

Have you ever seen a set of blue eyes like these? Seated cross-legged with a roll of papyrus between its hands, this wooden statue is remarkable for its preservation – the wood is around 4200 years old – and for the surviving paint. The reddish colour of the skin remains, along with large parts of a painted necklace. Most striking are the eyes, rimmed in blue paint, with irises made from lapis lazuli.

The writer travelled as a guest of Bunnik Tours. See bunniktours.com.au