ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
The Grand Egyptian Museum is finally open to the public. It replaces a dimly lit, cramped museum in downtown Cairo and took decades of planning and construction, interrupted by the Arab Spring revolution and slumps in tourism. The new, spacious museum, which cost around a billion dollars, sits outside Cairo in Giza, next to the pyramids and the Sphinx. It bills itself as the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single civilization, ancient Egypt, with 5,000 years of history on display. NPR's Aya Batrawy visited the museum and takes us along for a tour.
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AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: So the first thing that greets you when you walk into the Grand Egyptian Museum are these really, really high ceilings. You can see the sunlight beaming through. And in the center is a towering ancient Egyptian statue of Pharaoh Ramesses, standing with his fists clenched by side.
MATILDA PHILLIPEK: My name is Matilda Phillipek (ph). I'm from Poland. It's very great in here. Very crowd (ph), but it's great so far. I can't wait to see pyramids.
BATRAWY: So when you come up the last escalator and you get to the top of the museum where the main galleries begin, the first thing that greets you are these massive, huge windows, and right through, straight, you see an eyeline view of the pyramids. And it's magnetic. Everyone's got their phones out. It is breathtaking.
MONA MOHAMADASAVAI: (Through interpreter) I'm Mona Mohamadasavai (ph). I'm truly in awe. It's really beautiful. And to see something that's thousands of years old, it's incredible.
BATRAWY: It is so crowded. Every single glass encasement is surrounded by people taking photos, people from all over the world.
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MADDIE MCPHERSON: I'm Maddie McPherson (ph) from Utah. I think that it's amazing that they have managed to fit as many exhibits and collections in this museum as they can. And there's still more that we haven't even seen.
BATRAWY: Any of the exhibits that stood out for you so far?
MCPHERSON: Well, I think the exhibit that we're in right now, Tutankhamun's burial exhibit. Just the fact that there were shrines within shrines within shrines, and then the sarcophagus and the coffins. And I think it's very special that we're able to see it.
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BATRAWY: One of the most popular exhibits I've seen so far here is the sarcophagus and coffins because they're so well-maintained. You can still see all the vibrant reds and turquoise and coral colors and navy-blue colors. You can still see all the drawings of the lotus flowers, the phoenix, the etchings of the hieroglyphics. Everything is so well preserved.
JACOB LINDELL: Hello. I'm Father Jacob Lindell (ph) from Ohio. I'm a priest studying in Rome, but I'm here on a visit to Cairo visiting the Grand Egyptian Museum. What I'm looking at right now is the funeral mask of King Tut that you've seen in pictures, you've seen on magazines, and here we are in the flesh. It's a little different when you can actually see it with your two eyes and your perspective. And as a - well, I'm a Catholic priest. And as the attention that we give to our dead, it's something that's constant throughout cultures, and it's really cool to see the different ways that different cultures have paid respects. But of course, this is for their king. This is for their pharaoh. And yeah, you can't really get the amount of gold, the life-like eyes, the jewels. It's incredible.
BATRAWY: To see the bust of Tutankhamun, there's actually a line that kind of wraps around the exhibit and the glass that contains the actual bust. And it sort of reminds me as if you were going to the Louvre and there's a line to go see the Mona Lisa, very much like that.
MARK AUSTIN: Hi, I'm Mark Austin (ph) from Utah.
BATRAWY: What's the feeling you're walking away with?
AUSTIN: How advanced they were. The feeling of awe - how advanced the pharaohs and their kingdom that they managed.
SCHMITZ: That was a visit to the new Grand Egyptian Museum outside Cairo with NPR's Aya Batrawy. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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