Tutankhamun central to Egypt's new tourist GEM

With pharaoh-like fanfare, Egypt unveils a huge new museum dedicated to its ancient civilisation. Samy Magdy of the Associated Press reports

- Samy Magdy of the Associated Press reports

N AN extravaganza of pharaonic imagery with a drone light show depicting ancient gods and pyramids in the sky, Egypt inaugurated its long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, a mega-project aiming to give the country's millennia-old heritage a rich, modern display.

Two decades in the making, the museum located near the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx is the centrepiece of the government's bid to boost Egypt's tourism industry and bring cash into the troubled economy.

At the elaborate grand opening ceremony, attended by a number of European and Arab royals and other presidents and prime ministers, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi sought to give the event an international scale.

He called on attendees to "make this museum a platform for dialogue, a destination for knowledge, a forum for humanity and a beacon for all who love life and believe in the value of humankind."

The museum, known as GEM, is one of several mega-projects championed by el-Sissi since he took office in 2014, embarking on massive investments in infrastructure with the aim of reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

Egypt's pharaonic history has long made it a tourist magnet. But it has also long struggled to organise and display the sheer huge number of artefacts - everything from tiny pieces of jewellery and colourful tomb murals to towering statues of pharaohs and animal-headed gods, with more as discoveries are constantly being made across the country.

Touted as the world's biggest museum dedicated to a single ancient civilisation, the new building, in contemporary style, is a stark contrast.

Its large, open halls give space for some 50,000 artefacts on display, along with virtual reality exhibits. It displays the entire collection of treasures from the tomb of the famed King Tutankhamun for the first time since its discovery in 1922.