CAMPAIGN FOR TOURISTS TO DONATE ONE US DOLLAR PER NIGHT TO THE GRAND EGYPTIAN MUSEUM GOES INTO EFFECT
Almasalla Arab Travel Portal News – Cairo – The fundraising campaign “Check out for the Grand Egyptian Museum” will begin the coming few weeks based on tourists making a voluntary contribution of one US dollar per night they stay in Egypt, up to a limit of seven nights.
The initiative which was brought up by Dr. Nora Ebeid, Fundraising Consultant For the Grand Egyptian Museum and Mr. Elhamy ElZayat, President of the Egyptian Tourism Federation, is based on an agreement between the State Ministry for Antiquities, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Egyptian Tourism Federation in cooperation with the Egyptian Hotels Association that began over a year ago when the idea was presented to the Ministry of Tourism and agreements negotiated.
The efforts to implement the campaign included having taxes waved by Egyptian tax authorities for the contribution and permission from the Ministry of Social Affairs for hotels to collect donations from tourists. The donated funds will be deposited in a special account of the Supreme Council of Antiquities to support the work of the GEM. The entire amount of the contributions will be earmarked for the museum project.
The campaign is based on hotels adding one USD or the equivalence in Egyptian Pounds per night up to a maximum of seven USD per stay to the room bill of a tourist. If a tourist prefers not to donate, the amount is removed from the checkout invoice.
The Grand Egyptian Museum will be the largest archaeological museum in the world, and the new home for the priceless King Tutankhamun collection along with 50,000 objects from Egypt’s Pharaonic Past, preserving and displaying thousands of objects currently hidden in storehouses or over crowded museums. These objects and the context in which they were found are considered as one of the most important archaeological collection in the world.
It will exhibit around artifacts ranging from small coins, exquisite jewelry, granite, marble and alabaster sculptures to monumental stone statues of the Pharaohs, arranged chronologically in galleries presenting the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom, the Late Kingdom and the Greco – Roman Period. Another 50,000 artifacts will be catalogued, stored and preserved at the GEM’s Conservation Center.
The civilization of Pharaonic Egypt has fascinated the world for hundreds of years. From the grandeur of the Pyramids to the treasures of Tutankhamun, the skill and creativity of the ancient Egyptians remains unsurpassed in human history.
The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), a project of the Ministry of State for Antiquities, is currently under construction on a 470-hectare site overlooking the Pyramids of Giza. It will become a gateway to Egypt’s past and one of the world’s most important museum complexes and very likely the largest archaeological museum in the world.
By establishing a global center of Pharaonic Egyptology, the GEM will make an important contribution to scholarship, research, conservation and spreading knowledge about ancient Egyptian history at a national and international level. The GEM will not only become a star attraction for International tourism, but will also establish itself as a popular educational, academic and cultural institution that will have an impact on the cultural, educational and social development the country.
GEM will encourage educational advancement, tourism promotion, job creation, community engagement and urban revitalization.
This initiative is an example of a partnership between public and private sectors, and reflects the importance the various stakeholders have given to the GEM as a generator of income and jobs for the country.
The Egyptian Government laid the foundation stone for the GEM in February 2002 and announced to the world the launch of one of the country’s most important cultural initiatives and public competition for the design of the complex. The main funder of the project is the Japanese Government with a soft loan of the equivalent of 340 USD million and the Government of Egypt.
The new museum will relieve the current congested state of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, allowing this hallowed institution to serve its original purpose as a haven for great masterpieces of Pharaonic art.
The construction of the complex is scheduled to be completed in 2016 and will be able to accommodate 15,000 visitors per day.
The museum complex includes 166,965 square meters of built space and is located 2.5 KM west of the Giza Plateau and the Pyramids. The Hill International-EHAF Joint Venture (Hill International -EHAF) is the Project Management Consultant (PMC /OMC) for the GEM, providing Construction and Operation Management Services to the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA).
The GEM will be ranked with well-established institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.
