World culture: Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking pyramids to open in 2015

The Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau with its famous pyramids will open its doors for the first visitors in August 2015, Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said.

A contract for running the third and last phase of the Grand Egyptian Museum was inked on January 10 2012 in Cairo. 

According to the Minister, the third stage will last for 40 months. The 108 000 m² museum will become a part of the museum complex covering the area of 480 000 m². The museum will display over 100 000 exhibits related to different epochs of the history of Egypt.

Apart from the main museum building the complex will include a cinema, a library, classrooms, conference halls, a multimedia center, a children’s museum, a museum for handicapped people, an entertainment center, exhibition halls for temporary expositions and parks. For convenience of tourists the museum complex will be connected with Giza Pyramids by a special road. 

Authorities of Egypt hope that in five years after its inauguration the Grand Egyptian Museum will handle 8 million visitors per year.