The Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the world's largest museum dedicated to a single civilisation, opened last week. Among its collection, the museum will display all Tutankhamun's treasures, alongside the Sun Boat of Cheops and a colossal statue of Pharoah Ramses II. Belgian construction company Besix was responsible for the building's construction.
King Filip and Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever were just some of the distinguished guests who attended the opening ceremony in Cairo. Egypt is sparing no expense to make the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) a major new tourist attraction.
In Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe, at the headquarters of construction company Besix in Belgium, a number of people will also be breathing a sigh of relief. After more than 10 years, one of their biggest projects has been completed. The price tag? One billion dollars, or around 850 million euros.
Besix was not only responsible for the construction, but also for the lighting, the air conditioning, the ICT and the transport of some of the most important artefacts, explains project manager Joris De Kinder from Cairo. The GEM even called on Besix to produce the labels in the museum rooms.
More than 30 years of patience
At Besix, they speak of a construction period of more than 10 years, but the first ideas for this museum were already conceived in the early 1990s. In 2002, the then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak even laid a symbolic first stone, even though no plan yet existed. It was not until a year later that Heneghan Peng Architects won the international architecture competition.
‘There were more than 1,300 candidates from over 80 countries for that competition,’ says project manager Joris De Kinder. ‘The location was chosen at the crossroads of the past and the present. Next to the centre of Cairo, but with a view of the pyramids. The architect incorporated this into the design in a fantastic way.’
Challenging design
The museum's sightlines are aligned with the pyramids, and triangles are a recurring theme in the design. The roof also slopes upwards, towards the tops of the pyramids a little further away. All this presented a number of architectural challenges.
‘Normally, when we construct a building, we know that there are roughly the same number of metres between axis F and axis G. In this building, at one point you measure 15 metres between axis F and G, and a little further on it is 12 metres. Everything is variable, everything changes. Of course, this contributed to the fact that it took longer than expected,’ says De Kinder, explaining the complexity.
At its peak, up to 6,000 workers were employed on the site all at the same time, with Besix calling on more than 300 subcontractors. It collaborated with Orascom Construction, the Egyptian company that owns 50 per cent of Besix's shares. Coordination on site was carried out by Belgian engineers.
Revolutions and pandemics
In addition to the unusual construction, Joris De Kinder sees other reasons why the museum's opening took so long. For example, some parts of the museum had not been fully designed when construction began, and sometimes the client's wishes changed.
During construction, Egypt underwent a political upheaval. After the Arab Spring of 2010, President Al-Sisi eventually came to power. ‘The political situation in Egypt did not help,’ De Kinder agrees. ‘The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza also caused delays.’
Meanwhile, the entire site has been completed and the last artefacts have been transferred. Just last week, Tutankhamun's golden death mask was moved. For decades it had been on display in the old museum on Tahrir Square but has now been moved to the new museum site. There, for the first time, Tutankhamun's treasures are being displayed in its entirety.
Boost to tourism
Egypt hopes that this museum will attract millions of additional tourists, which are much needed for the Egyptian economy. But is it realistic to expect the museum to receive up to 5 million visitors per year?
It certainly has the capacity. According to De Kinder, the museum already attracted 5,000 to 6,000 visitors per day during the pre-opening in recent months, even though the site was not yet fully accessible. ‘It's really big. In the entrance hall alone, they sometimes hold concerts for 500 people.’
Gigantic site
By way of comparison, the Louvre in Paris is the most visited museum in the world, attracting more than 8 million art lovers every year. The total acreage of the GEM is larger than the Louvre. The new museum in Egypt covers 490,000 square metres, while the Louvre covers “only” 360,000 square metres.
‘It is also much more than a museum. Only the top three floors of the main building are museum space,’ says De Kinder. ‘There is a conference centre, a 3D experience, a museum for children, a library, space for workshops, classrooms, restaurants. And then there are the gardens surrounding the site. Altogether, it is the size of 100 football pitches.’
Restoration
On the side of the museum site you will find the Conservation Centre, which is the restoration workshop where the artefacts are processed. It is connected to the museum via a tunnel.
For heavier items, the museum has a lift that can take 10 tonnes. Large objects can be transported from the garden to the exhibition hall via this lift. ‘It's a fantastic building, but sometimes it caused us headaches,’ De Kinder notes.
For example, the 11-metre-high statue of Pharoah Ramses II had to be placed in the entrance hall before the building was finished. Otherwise, it would not have fitted inside the museum. ‘ Using cranes, forklifts and heavy machinery we had to work around it. That's not something you see every day.’
Besix big in the Middle East
This is a major project for Besix, but not the biggest. The company previously built the Burj Khalifa, still the tallest skyscraper in the world. Besix is also well represented in the Middle East, concludes COO Jan Van Steirteghem. The company has been active in Egypt since 1990.
‘The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi is another iconic project. Later this year, we will also deliver the Zayed National Museum, and in 2026, the new Guggenheim. Closer to home, we are building the third tallest structure in Paris. But the GEM in Egypt is certainly one of the largest and most challenging projects we have ever undertaken.’
Besix also helped build several stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Research by human rights organisation Equidem revealed that there were abuses at the two World Cup stadium construction sites. Besix responded by saying that it had made efforts to prevent abuse by partners and subcontractors. Three people also died at the construction sites during the work.