Construction at long delayed Grand Egyptian Museum '99% complete': official

Construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum [GEM] is 99 percent complete, an official overseeing the site said earlier this week.

Speaking during a meeting of the museum’s board of directors, GEM General Supervisor Atef Moftah said that the museum’s structural work is finished, with works on the site close to completion, according to Daily News Egypt.

Moftah added that the museum's external yards and cultivations are at 98 percent completion, while construction of surrounding roads surrounding are also close to completion.

In the same meeting,  Assistant Minister for Archaeological Affairs at GEM Eltayeb Abbas said that more than 55,000 artefacts have been transferred to the new museum.

Construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum began in early 2021 in Giza near Cairo. However, its opening has been postponed more than once due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The museum houses three shrines to the pharaoh Tutankhamun, more than 5,000 artefacts from the boy king’s tombs, the world’s first hanging obelisk and a grand staircase furnished with monumental artefacts.

Some of the artefacts set to go on display at GEM will be seen by the public for the first time.

The museum is set to open its doors in the second half of 2022, Egyptian officials said at the Expo 2020 Dubai last year.