Up to 47,952 artefacts have been transferred to the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) in Giza ahead of its inauguration in 2020. According to statements by the general supervisor of the GEM project, Atef Moftah, around 44,569 antiquities have been restored and are set to be displayed at the museum. The statements were made during Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly's inspection of the under-construction GEM and its plateau, where he was accompanied by Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anany. El-Anany said that the project has nearly been finalised, with the building almost entirely completed and the roadways on the plateau over 90 percent built. The GEM complex is located on an area of approximately 500,000 square metres adjacent to the Pyramids of Giza. It is one of the largest museums in the world displaying the heritage of a single civilisation. The construction of the museum began in 2006 with funding from the Japanese government. The government of Japan loaned Egypt $450 million for the project, but the total cost of the museum is expected to reach $1 billion, El-Anany said in earlier press statements. The museum will contain over 100,000 artefacts, reflecting Egypt's past from prehistory through to the Greek and Roman periods. One of its main attractions, the hall of Tutankhamun, which will display the boy-king's belongings, is 95 percent complete, according to Moftah. Madbouly also inspected Khufu's Solar Boat Museum on the Giza Plateau, which is home to the pharaoh's first boat. The second boat, which is deemed one of the biggest of its kind in the world, is undergoing restoration with a 10 million grant from the Japanese government. Both boats are planned to be transferred to the GEM. Egypt hopes the new museum will contribute to boosting an already improving tourism industry that suffered under political and economic instability following the 2011 revolution.
