A fund-raising campaign to support the planned Grand Egyptian Museum was launched last week by the Ministry of Culture, reports Nevine El-Aref A dozen journalists and photographers sit glued to a large TV screen as a computer simulation takes them on a virtual tour of the projected Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the most ambitious archaeological museum ever planned. The GEM will be situated on the Giza plateau, and the design of the museum makes more than a nodding pass to landscape of the desert. The museum complex will centre on the Dunal Eye, an area containing the main exhibition spaces around which will spread a network of streets, piazzas and bridges, linking together the museum's many sections. The design is by Shih-Fu Peng, of the Dublin firm Heneghan, winners of the international architectural competition held in 2003. The museum, says Peng, will link modern Cairo to the ancient Pyramids, and will be partly ringed by a desert wall containing half a million semi-precious stones. "The GEM's façade will be constructed of translucent alabaster, allowing the day-light to penetrate inside the museum's halls," says Yasser Mansour, the GEM general coordinator guiding viewers along their virtual trip. The museum's grand staircase will follow a chronological route through the collections, culminating in a view of the Pyramids from the uppermost floor. The collections themselves will be organised thematically, beginning with the physical environment of the Nile valley and the surrounding desert and oases. Other displays will focus on kingship and the state, religious practices during the Amarna period and on the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians, their sports, games, music, arts and crafts as well as their cultural and social practices. A separate building will house the conservatory, library, mediatheque and other resources. A large piazza will separate the Eye from a series of flexible spaces, including an auditorium that can be converted into three smaller conference rooms, temporary exhibition spaces and commercial areas. Around the Dunal Eye gardens will be landscaped according to the topography of the site, in a pattern of spirals. "The GEM really is a gem in the parched Giza desert. It will stand as a beacon to the oldest human civilisation in the world," said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. He then asked the international community to help raise the funding necessary for the project, projected at $550,000,000. Hosni also called on Egyptians to shoulder part of the burden of bringing the plans to life, suggesting that a public subscription be launched in similar to what happened when Mahmoud Mukhtar carved the well known statue of "Egypt's Awakening". "In building a state-of-the-art museum near the Pyramids of Giza we want to create the best environment for the display of our priceless treasures. There will be more space, better lighting and more information available, and will do justice to our priceless heritage," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly, as he described the new museum as one of the "world's most ambitious projects". In 2002 the Arab Development Fund donated $1 million to the project, which helped finance the international architectural competition. The Japanese government has already indicated its intention to contribute to the building costs, either with a long term loan or grant, while the actual running costs of the institution will be met by the Ministry of Culture and the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The World Bank, Hosni said, had declined to assist with funding, though the ministry will approach the bank's outgoing president, James Wolfensohn, who runs a consultancy specialising in fund-raising. Tourism Minister Ahmed El-Maghrabi described the project as "a High Dam for Cairo" that will attract a million extra tourists annually to Egypt's capital. A Ministry of Culture committee comprising senior officials, architects and engineers, is already selecting the contractor who will prepare the ground for construction, revealed Farouk Abdel-Salam, first undersecretary at the ministry. He expects the result to be announced by the end of April. Within four months the 480,000 square metre site is expected to be ready for the laying of the museum's foundations. "In order to save time the restoration of more than 100,000 artefacts will proceed simultaneously with the construction of the main museum building which we plan to complete by 2009," said Abdel-Salam. The idea of a new museum was first broached in 1996 but the shelved owing to a lack of funding. The idea resurfaced in 2001, when the Ministry of Culture launched an international architectural competition for the design of a new museum. After much debate, a site was finally selected in Giza, and on 4 February 2002 President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone. During the first phase of the competition, from 7 May to 17 August 2002, a nine-member jury of architects, Egyptologists and museologists from Egypt, the UK, Mexico, Italy, France and Korea, selected 20 designs from the 1,557 submitted from architectural practices in 83 countries. In the second phase, from 17 December 2002 to 17 March 2003, these were narrowed down to six and then three. The first prize of $250,000 went to Peng. Austrian architect Helmut Swiczinsky took second place, receiving $150,000, while the Italian Renato Rizzi came third and received $100,000. It is not planned that the GEM will replace the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. "That will continue to house 10,000 masterpieces of Pharaonic art and sculpture from different periods of history," said Hosni. Mohamed Ghoneim, head of project coordination, said that a special section for children will be created in order to help youngsters learn about their heritage. The museum will be equipped to cope with an estimated three million visitors annually. It will also house a fully-computerised information centre for Egyptologists and a training centre where short courses on Egyptology will be given to museum curators and conservationists. Specialised courses for IT specialists will also be held and extensive restaurant and shopping facilities are being planned.
