Egypt officially opens vast new Grand Egyptian Museum

Egypt has staged a lavish official opening ceremony for the Grand Egyptian Museum, located close to right the famous Pyramids of Giza on Saturday. The museum has been partially open to the public since last year, but will be officially and fully opened only now after years of delay.

Described as Egypt’s most ambitious cultural project, the museum was designed by Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects and covers around 500,000 square meters, housing over 100,000 artifacts representing seven millennia of Egyptian history. The cost of the project is estimated to be over one billion dollars.