Egypt's long-overdue museum revolution will thrill cultural tourists. Pity about the pandemic.

The Globe and Mail, by ERIC REGUL EUROPEAN BUREAU CHIEF (Excerpt: Egypt's long-overdue museum revolution will thrill cultural tourists. Pity about the pandemic)

THE GLOBE IN EGYPT

After decades of planning and big spending, Cairo has an ambitious new museum to showcase Egypt’s historic treasures, and a new one in Giza is opening next year. The Globe and Mail took a look.

Visitors look at an archeological exhibit this past April at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, a day after its official opening. It's one of two new museums in Egypt; the second, the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, is still under construction.MAHMOUD KHALED/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

For decades, the cultural and historical itinerary of many foreign visitors to Cairo was set – and somewhat limited. The must-sees were the Egyptian Museum, in the chaotic city centre, and the Pyramids and the Sphinx, a traffic jam away in nearby Giza.

Today, after a decade-long explosion of spending and a new way of thinking about the visitor experience, the choice has improved dramatically.

In the spring, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization officially opened in spectacular fashion, with the Pharaohs’ Golden Parade – 18 kings and four queens – making its way through the streets from the Egyptian Museum.

Some time next year, the Grand Egyptian Museum will open in Giza. When it does, the long-delayed project will be the largest archeological museum in the world.

“We are seeing a museum revolution,” said Tarek Sayed Tawfik, an Egyptology professor, member of the Supreme Committee for the Museum Display Scenario and former director of the unfinished Grand Museum, while sitting in garden shade outside the Egyptian Museum on a hot day in mid-October.

“It’s in response to criticism that the Egyptian Museum being more of a warehouse than a museum.”

Indeed, the Egyptian Museum is a glorious but cluttered mess, its vast collection overwhelming.

The lovely, pink neoclassical building that houses the archeological treasures was built by Italians, after a French architect’s design, and opened 119 years ago in Tahrir Square. It is the oldest archeological museum in the Middle East.

Its 120,000 objects – from elaborate sarcophagi to towering pharaonic statues – are displayed haphazardly in halls and galleries, filling every nook and cranny. The wooden and glass cabinets are handsome but dusty, the lighting poor, the labelling inadequate. There is no air conditioning. You have to know what you are looking for – a guide is essential unless you have a day or two to meander.

Among the exhibits are the complete contents of the tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu, the parents of Queen Tiye, who was the royal wife of Amenhotep III. The museum’s highlight is the golden mask of Tutankhamen, perhaps ancient Egypt’s best-known artifact. It is to be moved to the Grand museum.

At top, people visit the Mask of Tutankhamen hall at the Egyptian Museum in 2013. The pharaoh's burial artifacts will have a new home at a museum in Giza, shown at bottom under construction in 2018. MAHMOUD KHALED AND SIMA DIAB/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

More than a decade ago, when the new museum projects were being launched, the idea was to close the Egyptian Museum. But Egyptians wouldn’t hear of it.

During the 2011 revolution, they tried to shield it from looters and largely succeeded. The looters breached the back side of the museum and made off with only a couple of dozen objects.

“The Egyptians are so proud of this museum,” Prof. Tawfik said. “They made a human ring around the museum to protect it.”

The new plan is to whittle down its collection to 80,000 objects, rebuild the display cases and improve the labelling – an overhaul that is being backed by the European Union and several high-profile European museums, including the Louvre and the British Museum.

The relaunched Egyptian Museum will not include any of the royal mummies, which were sent to the new Civilization museum on April 3 in a parade broadcast around the world.

To protect the 22 mummies, they were delivered in oxygen-free nitrogen capsules in shock-resistant vehicles travelling on newly paved roads. Costumed Cairenes formed an honour guard for their ancient kings and queens.