The GEM opening
Sorry, I keep checking but no news yet about the GEM grand opening.
Nothing new to report about the recent discovery of the "Golden City" on the west bank across the Nile from Luxor, either.
The biggest news is Egypt made a second successful test of the vehicle and rig that will be used to transfer the Kufu solar boat from the boat museum building adjacent to his pyramid to the GEM. The article I found included a photo of the rig.
Also, they have removed all pieces of the second 4,700-year-old wooden solar boat which were wrapped and stacked in 13 layers that have remained buried in a hand-cut stone pit near the first boat pit, since both were discovered in 1954. A survey done in 1987 with remote camera indicated insects had invaded the wooden parts and there was possible water damage during the building of the museum for the first boat, so they decided to dig it up and remove it also. They started in 2009 but serious work didn't begin until 2017 to clean, stabilize, carefully remove and catalogue nearly 1,700 separate fragile pieces and transfer them to the GEM restoration labs for further work. Each piece was so fragile they had to stabilize it in a temporary lab built over the pit before they could remove it. Conservators painstakingly cleaned each individual piece, filled in gaps with conservation materials, and re-joined broken fragments. The work is usually slow, it takes roughly one month to stabilize a 20m plank of wood for transport to the GEM. They plan to reassemble and display it in the GEM along with the first boat. I think it would be interesting to have first boat displayed in its fully assembled state like before, yet show the different stages of the discovery, excavation and reassembly of the second boat. I haven't read it anywhere, but I hope and suspect they will dismantle and remove the ugly old solar boat museum building.
Boat Pit:
Trailers and rig delivered:
Test run:
First boat in old museum:
Comments
It definitely would be interesting to see the reconstruction pictures. I did see this funerary ship some years ago and find it fascinating. I recall in Israel there was a museum with the "Jesus boat" dug out of the Sea of Galilee with a whole bunch of photographs showing the dig/reconstruction. It was quite interesting.
Thanks AlanS.
)) 
))) at least we can say we drove the parking lot.
I still have 70 days to go...... maybe a miracle happens and Tauck can drive by the Museum
Thanks
GEM opening scheduled for one week after AlanS's tour concludes, whenever that is!
Obviously, just kidding.
Well...It's official. I will not see the GEM during my December JE tour. GEM opening estimated to open Summer 2022. I'm betting it will open in August timeframe to celebrate the 100th anniversary discovery of King Tut's tomb by Howard Carter. AlanS..unfortunately, you may not see it either
https://grandegyptianmuseum.org
This is also an interesting article dated 09/13/2021. I'm sure there will be a grand festival; however, It will most likely be in 2022 as well.
https://www.egyptindependent.com/gem-opens-with-10-day-festival-debut-of-opera-tutankhamun-egyptologist/
Don't give up hope yet!!
Despite what it looks like, the site at your first link is NOT the official GEM website. As it says on its home page, it is, "An independent information resource about the new GEM of Egypt." Let's hope it is off-base, but you never know. The article about the festival, opera, opening is more promising.
I predicted a few years ago, the opening could easily slip and if so, they might take advantage of the centenary of the discovery of Tut's Tomb, which occurred on November 4, 1922. And let's not forget travel writer, TV host, etc. Peter Greenberg said he was told by the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities (Khaled el-Anany) that the GEM would be open in February 2022 (they don't want to open it too much in advance of my visit- just enough time to get the kinks out!
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The Government/Museum is working on a new website, but here is the link to the "official GEM website" http://gem.gov.eg/index.htm It is pretty sad and doesn't seem to have been updated since 2016!
The Facebook page isn't much better- just contains meeting announcements. https://www.facebook.com/gemcc/
I just did a search of the usual sources and found no new info on the opening of the GEM. Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed!
I will be there in Nov 2022 and I hope it's open at that time. Bet you didn't know mañana is an Arabic word, too
It is a subset of Inshallah.
Don’t forget, sometimes an official opening may be sometime after the actual opening of an attraction, so don’t give up hope!
Austin girl here: Oh no, I just read this. I thought surely when I booked Jewel of the Nile in Oct 2022 it would be well after the opening. Maybe I should cancel and rebook at a later time. We would be SOOOO disappointed.
Austin girl, all sources for the past 6 months or so have unfortunately said the GEM will not open until Nov '22. I check regularly and this is the most recent info, though it doesn't give any hint the opening will be moved up. More than likely, there is still a lot to do to be able to open in November.
From Egypt Today, "CAIRO- 6 February 2022: Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli directed the cabinet members to accelerate the completion of the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), said the Egyptian cabinet in a statement on Sunday."
The big question is will the formal opening with dignitaries, etc. happen in Nov, but, if so, will there be a soft opening in the weeks (months?) prior to work out the final kinks. I think a soft opening is your best hope. If you miss the GEM in Oct, then you have a reason to return to Egypt!
As many of you planning to go to Egypt know, they moved the Solar boat from its "museum" on the south side of Kufu's pyramid to a new enclosure attached to the side of the GEM. I have been following this development. AhramOnline reported this news that may be of interest to visitors to Giza, at least it should be good news to photographers,
"Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 5 Feb 2022
Visitors to the Giza Plateau can now finally enjoy an unobstructed view of the entire southern angle of the Great Pyramid of Khufu, after the Khufu Boat Museum that had blocked the view for decades was removed."
Well Alan, that settles that. I've been watching for this GEM opening since early last year and I'm not willing to gamble on a soft opening. I'm not going to Egypt and be so close and then miss it. I have just rescheduled for February 2023. SURELY they will be open and have all the bugs worked out by then.
AustinGirl Hi
SURELY in Egyptian means... .....Hopefully
More news from May 16 that suggests November opening
https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/05/16/egypts-tourism-ministry-gives-update-on-grand-egyptian-museum/
Figures. We'll be there right at the very end of October.
Sure hope Tauck is on it. Our tour ends in Cairo November 23 - 26 plus we added 27 and 28 to be sure we have enough time to really take in GEM. Have other ideas for those last 2 days just in case. Portolan - maybe if you reserve a few extra days at Mena House it might be just enough to take you to the GEM opening? Will all be waiting for exact dates.
and from "Egypt Today" -
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/4/115966/Construction-of-much-anticipated-Grand-Egyptian-Museum-to-be-completed
OBXnana: while that idea is tempting, I can guarantee that if we extended, the opening would be delayed. So we owe it to November Taucksters to get out of town so the new museum can open.
Having done J&E 2 months ago, I don’t know how they will fit it the GEM without cutting stuff or adding a day. For me, the morning in old Coptic Cairo and mosque visit were ho hum and could go away, but others enjoyed it
Well, November 4 has come and gone. I anxiously logged onto the GEM website every day, hoping at least by November 6, the last speaker of the conference would make an announcement. It would have been a perfect opportunity since the title of his speech was "The Tut Exhibit today."
I still have my fingers crossed that, by some miracle, it will open by our visit on February 1. At the very least, we can tour the light show on the OUTSIDE of the GEM at night. The Tauck itinerary still says a 1/2 day visit to the OLD Museum. I can't even imagine what is still there???.
Make sure you are looking at the real GEM website- this one https://grandegyptianmuseum.org/ which pops up most often on web searches is not the official site as it says in the disclaimer at the top, "GrandEgyptianMuseum.org is an independently run informational site." One time I actually found the official site which was under development but it was really sad. I can't find it now. The site which should have all the info, but unfortunately does not, is The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities website at this link: https://egymonuments.gov.eg/en#
Everyone is tight-lipped about the opening. None of the key government officials- al Sissi the president of Egypt, Khaled al-Anany, Cabinet Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Mustafa Waziri, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Major General Atef Moftah, General Supervisor of the GEM project, or Dr. Tarek Tawfik, Director of the GEM- have given a hint. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Indiana Jones and former Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who surprising was added to the GEM Board of Directors, mentioned sometime in 2023 during one of his presentations. So who knows when it will open!?!?!?!?
Don't worry, the old Egyptian Museum of Antiquities on Tahrir Square still has more stuff to see than you will have time!! The problem, is that they have discovered so much in Egypt over the last few years, there is more than they have floor space to display it.
I think I read in the paper, associated with the World Climate Summit taking place in Cairo, that the GEM would open once the world climate problem has been resolved. At least, I think it's even money on which will occur first. 😂
HA. that last one cracked me up. The outside is completely finished, and I saw an impressive video of the lighting display they have every night. . I did hear that quite a lot has been added to the GEM. They have now scheduled an underground shuttle or tram that leaves from the GEM over to the pyramids plateau. I'm wondering if all these last-minute add-ons have backed them up. Who knows. This trip has been put off twice. I decided to just go for it and wish for the best before I get too old to travel.
I just returned from the J & E tour. We were told it would be quite some time before its open since they are running low on money. They also have plans to build the new airport near there so that people can fly in for day trips to see the GEM and the pyramids. Not sure it can all be done in a day.
I don't know if there is going to be 'another' new airport, but the Sphinx International Airport opened in Jan 2020 but really didn't see much official air traffic until last summer- it is NW of Giza, but actually not all that much closer to Giza than the main airport (maybe less traffic?). I don't think it is suitable for big international long haul aircraft, though it shares runways with the adjacent Egyptian Air Force base. It would be great for charter flights from Aswan or Luxor.
Anyone who has taken an excursion to Alexandria probably passed by it - it is on the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road. It is pretty small but in 2020 Egypt announced plans to expand it to handle the influx of tourists headed to the GEM!
They are building a new Capital (governmental center for all govt entities and housing for gov't workers) somewhere in the desert SE of Cairo and are having big money troubles with that, too.
Route to the Mena House:
The times on your map are very similar to times from the current airport to the Mena House ( at least at midnight when I did it ).
Interesting.... It's a good think I didn't hold my breath.
AustinGirl I considered re-scheduling my 2021 J&E tour in the hopes the GEM would be open December 2022. I'm so glad I didn't. As Alan said, there are so many artifacts still in the Old Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The time Tauck will allocate to the GEM will not be sufficient. It will require extending your stay in Cairo (which isn't bad by any means).
My tour was perfect--perfect weather, perfect group size (12) and absolutely NO crowds--I have awesome photos of all those magnificent monuments with no one in the background. That said, I'm very happy people are starting to travel again....travel is good for the soul!