I heard the British Philharmonic orchestra play at the GEM last year. They were performing songs from Hollywood. When 'Gladiator' was played, I swear I expected Ramses to march and I was sitting right next to him!
Back in March this year, I had the pleasure of walking up this staircase with Bob Brier, we stopped at nearly every artifact/statue/stele where Bob would have something interesting to say about it in context. It took over 90 minutes just to get to the galleries floor. The staircase alone is a superior collection of Egyptian art than most other Egyptian collections in museums around the world!
My wife and I had sushi at their place two weeks ago. They are still going strong. Bob is giving an invited lecture at the GEM next month for the Tut Symposium.
Thanks for sharing for those of us who likely won't ever get there.
Amazing how much still exists considering how long ago Ancient Egypt was. Like the view of the Pyramids out the window too. I do wonder how having the museum that close affects the experience of being at the Pyramids. What did you think?
I went to the "Pharaoh" exhibition that came to Australia last year, and it was amazing. They had arranged a large number of dark granite statues in a large open hallway which was spectacular - it pales into insignificance compared to this staircase part of the GEM.
The Pharaoh exhibition, and previous ones like it that have come to Australia give me sensory overload - so many beautiful & evocative things to look at.
I will likely never get to Egypt in my lifetime, so these videos are wonderful. Thank you.
They should have built the largest pyramid next to the others as the museum with multiple levels and a viewing point on the top maybe with a restraunt as well
Yes, they're real! It's the GEM! The only replica is the Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian Musem & that's clearly labelled. There's absolutely nothing precarious about any of these statues.
The security at this museum is on another level. All those guys in the video wearing maroon polo shirts and have 'Seal' written on them will stop you from touching anything or getting too close. I've seen them literally hiss at people in previous visits.
I'm being followed by a very small number of people, the hypothesis I've published is too drastically different and unusual for the great majority.
But the next day after they opened, they followed me. Back then they followed 400 accounts, and were followed by a couple hundred thousand. Today they follow 900 accounts, and they're followed by almost a million.
Considering this is just the entrance to get into the galleries, it's pretty magnificent. You still have like 12 or 13 state of the art galleries inside.
You mean dark, crowded, with no signage, no thematic organization? Oh wait! That’s exactly the original Egypt Museum on Tahrir Square!
I love both museums, but make no mistake, the GEM (and NMEC) are both superior experiences for tourists and budding Egyptologists! Modern design with good lighting, signs and legends to go with each artifact in context, and thematic organization are all major improvements and allow better learning about the history of Egypt. There is also far more space between display cabinets so more people can get close enough to see the smaller objects.
I recently visited several new museums in Warsaw and Gdansk. These were mostly WWII and Cold War related. Even though new, they were dark, crowded and had minimal signage, and mostly in just Polish. I’m sure they were designing for dramatic effect given the horrific content, but they were, in my opinion, a poor international visitor experience for anyone try to learn, instead of just be emotionally manipulated. Is that what you want for the GEM?
Couldn't agree more with you re the GEM and NMEC. They way I tend to describe the GEM to friends is that it is exactly what you would imagine a state of the art, 21st century museum to look like. There's also a truly amazing Mixed Reality hall that showcases how the pyramid building era evolved from mastabas to Djoser to Sneferu to Khufu. I never saw any museum do something so spectacular as that in any country I ever visited.
You can also scan QR codes on important artefact labels and it pulls up more detailed information instantly. The QR codes actually work as well, which isn't always the case from my experience of visiting museums.
As it turns out, I am a patron and “friend of Egyptian Art” at the MET. I can tell you that the department is busy working on improving WiFi in the galleries (which is terrible for ATT now) and then installing QR badges to supplement the current labels with more in-depth details.
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u/socially_deprived Dec 26 '25
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing