The King will attend the inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza this Friday

The Diplomat King Felipe VI will attend the official inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum this Friday, November 1st. Located near the Giza necropolis, the museum will be the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization. Last February, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took advantage of his visit to Spain to extend to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez an invitation to the King and Queen and himself to attend "the inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum." "This visit will strengthen the established historical ties between the two countries and peoples," he added. Known as the "Fourth Pyramid" due to its design and proximity to the Giza necropolis, the museum will house permanent exhibitions that will occupy an area of 85,000 square meters. The entire structure will be built on 480,000 square meters, with a capacity to accommodate up to 15,000 people daily. The opening has been postponed repeatedly due to the difficulty of erecting the building in the desert—in the shadow of the Giza pyramids—and ensuring there were no relics underneath, a process that required removing thousands of tons of sand that took ten years. Furthermore, the inauguration has been affected by major global events in recent years. The opening was initially scheduled for 2020, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next scheduled date was 2022, but it was postponed due to the war between Russia and Ukraine and the ensuing economic crisis. After the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023, the government moved the opening to July of this year, but postponed it again following Israel's attack on Iran the previous month. Despite all this, the Grand Museum has gradually opened spaces to visitors. Among the exhibits is a vigilant statue of Ramses II in the central hall, twelve meters high and 3,200 years old, which has begun a new reign among the most outstanding archaeological artifacts of Pharaonic Egypt. Ramses II, the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty, who lived 87 years, ordered the construction of the famous rock temples of Abu Simbel to commemorate his victory in the Battle of Kadesh (1274 BC) and his own mortuary temple in Thebes, the present-day town of Luxor. The building by Heneghan Peng Architects features a grand staircase lined with sarcophagi and sculptures leading to a huge window with a privileged view of Giza. The enormous complex will house 100,000 artifacts, an antiquities warehouse, and a restoration laboratory. Its large halls with high ceilings and galleries filled with natural light are designed to make tourists feel as if they are entering an archaeological site. The crown jewel will be Tutankhamun's treasure, the only intact tomb of a pharaoh discovered. In total, some 5,400 artifacts found in the tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 will be on display. All these relics will be displayed in a single space divided into galleries that will allow visitors a complete picture of the life, suffering, and tragedy during the reign of Tutankhamun. The galleries of the Grand Museum are interconnected chronologically, allowing visitors to travel through the entire history of Ancient Egypt. Felipe VI's presence in Egypt comes just a month and a half after the King and Queen's first state visit to the country, at the invitation of Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. On that occasion, the King denounced "the brutal suffering" experienced by the population of the Gaza Strip and called for "a viable Palestinian state, living in peace and security with Israel," while acknowledging "the mediating role that Egypt has been playing in achieving a ceasefire agreement, the release of hostages, and the full restoration of humanitarian aid." Specifically, the Egyptian town of Sharm El-Sheikh hosted the signing of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on October 13, which was attended by Pedro Sánchez.

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