Last month the Grand Egyptian Museum finally opened. Twenty years in the making, it has taken its place among the world’s most thrilling & important archeological museums. Nadia Wassef is one of Cairo’s foremost contemporary literary figures and female entrepreneurs. Ms. Wassef is the author of the best selling Chronicles of a Cairo Bookseller. She recently visited the Grand Egyptian Museum and has generously shared her impressions.
"The gods were in attendance. Shu, the embodiment of wind and air, brushed through the vast arena, making me feel as suspended as Ramses II’s 3500-year-old obelisk. Ptah, the god of craftsmen, would have approved of the world’s first suspended obelisk, erected on a glass plate supported by four black columns enabling visitors to see Ramses II’s cartouche inscribed underneath. Atum, Nefertum, and Nut were hard at work, moving the sun across the sky, bathing the Grand Egyptian Museum in her rays. Renenutet, the goddess of agriculture, sent her emissaries: endless rows of patient palm trees standing in deference and dignity, keeping company and time.
The white stone façade, with its recurring pyramid shapes nestling in geometric
perfection, reflects the harmonious marriage of minimalism and meaning. A
triangular entrance adorned with black and gold cartouches heightens the sense of imminent drama. Rays of the sun become axis points organizing all structures. Black columns reminiscent of mini-Babels bear the names of Egypt across time - Kemet, Hikuptah, Aegyptos, Mizraim - and modern-day languages.
Still, nothing quite prepares you for the breathtaking interior. Simplicity makes for the astounding. I am drawn towards the towering statue of Ramses II, with his left foot forward in alignment with the heart. His wife, Nefertari - the beauty of
beauties - stands behind him, propelling him forward. Husband and wife deliver you to The Grand Staircase, a vertical sculpture gallery charting the pharaohs’ journey from earth to eternity. I walk along the paths of measured glory, from big statues designed to inspire awe to temples depicting the intricate relationships between pharaohs and gods until eternity, where the afterlife awaits. I stop to admire a display of miniature statues with braille explanations that attempt to relay the unimaginable. At the end of this majestic staircase dotted with magnificent statues, temples, and sarcophagi stands a large window framing the three pyramids of Giza, the last surviving Wonder of the World, a mere two kilometers away. In geometric triumph, lines run through the structures that constitute the Grand Egyptian Museum, mimicking the sun’s rays and intersecting with the apex of each of the three pyramids ahead.
At this point, I realize I haven’t visited any of the galleries yet! The Grand Egyptian
Museum houses 100,000 artefacts in twelve galleries. These can be experienced
chronologically, starting with the Old Kingdom, then the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, and the Graeco-Roman Period. I chose the thematic alternative, which took me through the galleries and periods organized around society, kingship, and beliefs - subjects that interest Egyptians today. In the presence of so much of the past, I feel relief at the insignificance of now, how dauntingly small it appears, and how unmatchable the future seems. However, the immediate future of GEM holds some excitement: the opening of the Tutankhamun galleries, home to 5,000 artefacts recovered from his tomb. As Atum and Nut began to wane, Khonsu and Sopdu, the deities of the moon and the night, took over, and the plateau’s palate shifted to the blues of the night sky found in the tombs of the pharaohs. I looked back at the structure and arena I was leaving behind with pride - not its ancestor, hubris - but the satisfaction that comes from the achievements of others with whom we can claim an association. I smiled at the thought: even though I was steeped in five thousand years of history, nothing about this gets old."
Nadia Wassef, November 2024, Cairo
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