Inside The Grand Egyptian Museum: Ramesses II And Tutankhamun's 5,500 Treasures

The world has always been fascinated with Egypt. Its pyramids, its sphinx and its cultural heritage. And now, the land of pharaohs has successfully met one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Building a gigantic structure to honor the country's exceptional archaeological heritage. One that's unique in the world. It's called the Grand Egyptian Museum. I told President Mubarak, I want to build the world's biggest museum. And he said, what do you mean? You're crazy. We're going to take you behind the scenes of this colossal project. One that required incredible resources, took over 20 years and prevailed despite the most unexpected circumstances. It is an experience that you cannot have anywhere else. Located on the Giza Plateau on the outskirts of Cairo, the country's capital, the site is exceptional. It faces the world's most famous pyramids and has already reached legendary status. Thanks to a one-of-a-kind technical and aesthetic feat. We are going to build the biggest damn museum in the world. The megastructure weighs more than 1.5 million tons. Nearly seven times Chicago's Willis Tower. And it spreads over 50 hectares. The Grand Egyptian Museum includes 12 hectares of gardens and 2.5 hectares of space dedicated to exhibitions. Over four times as much as the Met in New York. 100,000 artworks in total, some of which are over 10 meters high. Its final cost will reach 1 billion euros. Think about the size of the pyramids or the size of the colossal statues at Abu Simbel. And then all of the solid gold in Tutankhamen's tomb. It's difficult not to kind of think, that's amazing. This project is truly a miracle. It took 20 years, as long as it took to build the Great Pyramid of Giza. Two decades of planning, innovating, mind-blowing logistics and ferocious persistence to surmount many unforeseeable challenges. When we decided to make this museum, we first chose the place. We thought it should have connection between the pyramids and the museum. 5,000 workers labored on site 24 hours a day, seven days a week. An unprecedented feat. Inside, the dimensions of this megastructure are just as staggering. 40 meters in height, with a 28-meter picture window looking out on the pyramids. And a central staircase as tall as a 13-story building. Welcome to the biggest museum in the world. The ambition of the Grand Egyptian Museum is to centralize Egypt's vast historical collections while embracing cutting-edge technologies. It is designed to welcome 10,000 visitors per day to discover in a single location, and for the first time ever, all 5,500 pieces of Tutankhamen's treasure. The Grand Museum is a showcase for the country and is meant to help revive tourism. Millions of travelers come to explore these archaeological remains, the pyramids, the Sphinx, the pharaohs, and also the Museum of Cairo, located in Tahrir Square, in the heart of the capital. The museum, built in a neoclassical style, opened its doors in 1902 and is showing its age. It's worn out, unkept and unsecured. Hence the idea to build something new that reflects the times and the country's economic reality. The world has become very used to the museum on Tahrir Square, which is the most sensational collection. But the museum is inadequate. Everybody knows that. All Egyptologists love the Egyptian museum at Tahrir Square. We all agree that it is much too crowded with the pieces there. Some pieces, especially the ones that are of organic nature, that need a new place of display, that need modern showcases, that need new lighting features. So this was the chance to make a difference. Back then, a lot of monuments needed to be restored or needed some attention and care. But we also wanted a big new project. Then I thought, the biggest museum in the world. That's when I spoke to President Mubarak. I told him, Mr. President, I want to build the world's biggest museum. And he said, what do you mean? You're crazy. Where will you get the money? And I said, listen, big projects always get funded. The story really began in the year 2000, when President Hosni Mubarak decided to build a giant new museum. Its true purpose was to showcase Egypt's archaeological greatness. I'm not sure it's the museum that people were expecting, but it seems very close to the museum that is needed for that kind of collection. And I say that in terms of display for the public, exhibitions, but also in terms of massively improved facilities for storage and conservation. So there is currently an international project which involves several of the largest museums with Egyptology collections in Europe. Partnering with the Egyptian authorities to try and develop a plan for the museum that ensures that it's not just forgotten, or it's not just kind of second place. It's a different museum. It's another museum. When we decided to make this museum, we first chose the place. We thought it should have connection between the pyramids and the museum. The chosen location was the Giza Plateau. Facing the pyramids on the edge of the desert and the outskirts of Cairo. With 20 million inhabitants, the Egyptian capital is the biggest city in the Middle East and the second largest city in Africa. 95% of the country's population, which is around 102 million people, live along the Nile, the country's legendary river. On the river's west bank, 20-some kilometers from the city center, is the Giza Necropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the most visited in the world. Here lie the great pyramids of Giza, Khafre and Menkaure, and the Great Sphinx, the biggest sculpture ever built by mankind. Over 4,500 years old, the Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Once the location was defined, Egypt launched the biggest architectural design contest the world had ever seen and called for applications. Building a museum of this size on such a prestigious site was unprecedented. It was a remarkable challenge for architects all over the world. 1,557 projects from 83 countries were considered, a first in the history of architecture. After three years of questioning and thousands of meetings and projections, a Sino-Irish architect office based in Dublin won the contest. It was a beautiful proposal, and come to think about it, why did they win? It's because their concept looked onto the pyramids. The view incorporated the Great Pyramid as part of the museum itself. We found out that one architect who designed this museum in a way to be connected with the Great Pyramid. He made the connection, and that was the project that was chosen. The architect is from China. He lives in Dublin. It was an interesting competition because very early during the competition, 1,500-1,600 people entered. So it's like, how do you get through all 1,600 entries? It's almost impossible. You can't compete with the pyramids. One of the main tasks for the designers was for this museum to harmonize with the pyramids and with the environment around it. So any project that wanted to create a dialogue with the pyramids to be almost an equal or to somehow do better than it, very quickly it was taken off the books. There was a plateau. The plateau is about 20 stories high, which is roughly 60-70 meters. So if you built above the plateau, which is the desert, on the plateau rather, and you stood as an object, out. If you basically built inside the plateau, which is that which separates the desert from the Nile Valley, or this very important symbolic condition between what is life and what is death, you got through the next round. We wanted to have a connection between the exhibition galleries and the pyramids. They're up at the level of the plateau, which is the desert. Which is pretty much everything we know of what we know of Egypt is. It's all about death. All the things are about death. Monuments, tombs, they're all up there on the desert. And this is one, when we started the project, we were driving a car and people were like, Oh, you're always talking about the desert. But Egypt is about the Nile. Egypt is about the wealth of the Nile, the fertility of the Nile. The Nile Valley, which is carved through the desert, and our site was right at that point. So there's a 50 meter difference in level between the desert and the Nile Valley. It's a great site. Fantastic site. It's what Egypt is about. So we wanted to see the pyramids, but the pyramids are up a desert at the plateau level. And we were coming in at the Nile level, so we needed to get people up 25 meters. Because the pyramids are so close to the site, being able to see the pyramids from inside the gallery means that you are looking at the collection and you see pyramids at the same time. As an artifact. Construction began in 2005. President Hosni Mubarak and Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni officially laid the first stone of the future Grand Museum. Five years were needed to fortify the foundations. The first few months were chaotic, as the team struggled with the terrain and its nature. The Grand Egyptian Museum location is an ingenious location because it is really built on a sandy hill. Why is this special? Because this means that the ancient Egyptians never built anything on this site. Because the ancient Egyptians would never build anything except on a stable limestone foundation. One of the main difficulties at the beginning was to stabilize the ground for the building. And hundreds of thousands of cubic meters of sand had to be removed in order to reach the level so that at the end the galleries of the museum would be at the same level as the pyramids. So when you are standing in the galleries of the museum, you are looking at the pyramids at the same level. This took a lot of time, but at the end it was worth it because standing now in these galleries you have this fantastic view. Three and a half million tons of sand were excavated to build a 320,000 cubic meter concrete base and its 8,500 ton metal frame. Even heavier than that of the Eiffel Tower. But in 2011 the monumental project ran into an obstacle that threatened the very build of the museum. Construction was brutally interrupted by the Arab Spring, known as the revolution in Egypt. Construction would stop for a whole year. We had trouble in Egypt in 2011 and that trouble stopped everything. And even I had all the money to finish this museum in 2015, but all this money was used for nonsense during the time of the revolution. At the time of the revolution in 2011, which played out in Tahrir Square, albeit mostly at the far end from the museum, there was perceived to be a threat to the security of the museum and indeed the museum was broken into. But there was this chain of people with their arms locked together of just ordinary Egyptian people, making sure that nobody could enter the museum and threaten it. And it was a very significant moment, I think. It just spoke to the Egyptians' feelings of how important their ancient culture is to their heritage. A year later, in 2012, the revolution was over. The country was bled dry. Reviving tourism became a priority for the Egyptian government and they shifted their focus to large construction projects like the Grand Egyptian Museum. To facilitate access to the new museum and the pyramids, a new international airport was built a few kilometers from the Giza Plateau. The world's biggest construction project began anew, following the original blueprints. This building is special because you can see the pyramids from anywhere on site. It was specifically designed so that nothing would hide the pyramids. The ground here rises towards them. All this is angled in the direction of the Great Pyramid. The architects' concerns included not creating a huge new monument on the landscape that would be visible from all around, so as not to detract from the vista of the pyramids and the idea of the pyramids dominating a relatively empty landscape. So I think the way that the museum is built into that natural hillside without really coming above the line of sight is very clever. To achieve that much space without doing that is very clever. From the new museum, the view of the pyramids is impressive and visitors can soak it in through a 28-meter picture window. Another unique touch from the architects was this 800-meter long and 40-meter high lighted wall made of onyx, an alabaster derivative that's translucent and typical in local crafts. By day, the stone allows soft light to pass through. By night, it's illuminated by subdued lighting. 400,000 square meters of stone and marble were required to build the museum. To accomplish this massive architectural feat, 5,000 workers labored day and night, seven days a week, with up to 9,000 other employees present on site. A truly unique construction project. I think the museum's collection is as interesting as the museum itself. The two go hand in hand. People visiting this place will get double the satisfaction. It's a mind-boggling project. It's very interesting and very exciting because it's the building that we've only seen in pictures as if it's a kind of dream for almost 20 years. But it really looks like that now. There really is that building. The building of the Grand Museum is a remarkable achievement. Its roof serves as a case study for architectural schools. It's made up of 10,000 square meters of pre-formed plates that are supported by steel beams capable of resisting the most violent seismic shocks. Its complexity is also due to its inclination, which is perfectly aligned with the pyramid's summit. In order to accomplish construction, builders created a revolutionary technique for the times. A 3D scan before construction of the structure's density, along with every detail of its electric and hydraulic systems. This meticulous planning and securing method has never been used in Egypt before, and it made the museum a veritable safehouse. It's considered to be the most secure place in the country. The megastructure is unique for yet another reason. The museum doesn't have a single right angle or parallel line. Everything is built using triangular logic. Its construction is reminiscent of the pyramids. The atrium lobby is composed of a lattice of stone triangles that weigh more than 1,300 tons, made up of 20 commercial planes. Its triangular form is the concept behind the entire structure. We used the triangle because in the facade we used it because of its structural properties, because it allowed us to get a very efficient structure in this plane. When we plan, it's a triangle. You start here and go to the pyramid, it's a triangle. In that direction, but on that direction, they're actually all parallel lines, which still means you end up with triangles. What this building was doing is it was creating a new facade. It's that condition where the Nile meets the desert. But it wasn't trying to be as perfectly geometrical, you see, as the pyramids, which are, of course, perfect triangles. The facade is unique because each triangle fits within a larger triangle as a nested structure. This Russian doll principle was also used in the tombs of the pharaohs. The nested triangles fit within each other. Meaning the geometry varies depending on the distance from which it is viewed. The museum's facade is this 800-meter-long, 40-meter-high lighted wall. It faces 12 hectares of gardens, the equivalent of 17 football fields. Seen from above, the exterior spaces unite to resemble the veins of a leaf. This is what we call the plaza. It's part of the landscape and the museum's environment. Next to the plaza are two big gardens. The sculpture garden will house small statues. And the other one is called the creation garden. And that's where we cultivate heirloom plants that have been grown in Egypt for 4,000 years. This is where a visit of the museum begins. You'll start facing the obelisk plaza. The obelisk will be erected here. This is basically its substructure. Right now, the obelisk is over there, but it will be set up here. All the materials used were sourced in Egypt. These are local materials. Marble, steel, aluminum. It's made to last for hundreds of years. After that, one sees the main facade that's completely covered in Egyptian marble. The entrance will feature another thing, cartouches of the 25 kings of ancient Egypt. 25 cartouches that repeat around the pyramid. They weigh nearly 120 kilograms and measure 120 centimeters by 60. The hieroglyphics inscribed on each cartouche read, Here lies the mask of Tutankhamen. The Grand Egyptian is now the only place people can see it. 28 shops, a conference center, a movie theater, three large gardens, and a children's museum complete this colossal complex. The museum is like a city within a city with its very own fire station and an autonomous electrical system. It's designed to be a cultural hub with living spaces where people can come to eat, be entertained, or take a stroll. We estimate that per day there will be up to 10,000 visitors to the Grand Egyptian Museum. This will be more something for the Egyptian family. And this museum is not only for our foreign guests, but it is also for the Egyptians in order for them to get to know their history, their roots, and in order to enjoy time in fantastic surroundings. It's a 50 hectare site, and I know that the west side and the north has got parking and there's conservation on the west, but there's still very, very large gardens. It was seen very much as public space because the amount of public space in Egypt is very small per person, one of the smallest in the world. So there was a kind of museum that just was not catered to tourism and Egyptology, that it actually catered to people who lived there and offered a sort of public space where people can just go. The architects designed the space with large numbers of tourists in mind. Everything was analyzed as a function of the expected number of visitors, including the subsequent safety norms, as well as to ensure the fluidity of the experience. Six million visitors a year, whatever number of people. But you know, you've got tourists, a lot of tourists coming in. How do you get them upstairs? So we thought, well, the easiest thing is you have a big stair. You kind of make it as simple as possible. But rather than just having a big stair, that stair becomes part of the procession of getting to the gallery. So you're coming from the noise of Cairo. And you know, Cairo is noisy. A lot of people getting off the bus. You walk in through, then you come in through the facade, and it immediately feels a bit quieter. It's a little cooler because you've got shading. You come in through that space, and then the pyramids are Old Kingdom. So at the bottom, the stairs becomes then the Gallery of the Pharaohs. So you start at the bottom. It was a chronological route, I think, eventually became the Gallery of the Pharaohs. But it was that idea that you just somehow spatially, you also allow people to decompress, to kind of move back in time, so that then they're ready to go through the galleries. So that's what the stair was about. When you ascend the staircase, there's a viewing platform, I think, that will give you this incredible view. And from that point of view, the way visitors experience the building inside is maybe more important than the way it looks on the outside. One of the main artworks at the museum is the statue of Rameses II. This 3,200-year-old giant was carved out of the Aswan granite quarries in southern Egypt. It was discovered in 1820 at the entrance of the Great Temple of Ptah, 10 kilometers south of Cairo. We know this statue almost 100 times. It belonged to the kings of the kings, Rameses II. And it was in Memphis, broken. In 1954, the Egyptian government decided to move it to the train station. The train station was called Rameses Station. It was nice. Even as an archaeologist, I don't like to see an obelisk or a statue in a modern square. But I found out later that the Egyptians, they built the bridge, ugly buildings around it. The statue became hidden. The statue had been heavily damaged by pollution. It measures a little more than 11 meters, as high as a three-story building. Its subject depicts a conquering king. The name Rameses II is carved into all temples. His story is legendary. He had a dozen wives, 126 kids, and a 66-year reign. The transfer of artifacts began with the statue of Rameses II, which was moved once more and installed in the new museum's atrium, like a temple guardian. The minister of culture decided to move that statue. Everyone was afraid. But I do believe in job description. We worked very hard until we decided exactly how this statue will be moved. And we decided one day, from the train station that will go for about 25 kilometers to the Grand Museum. I will never forget this day in my life. The move was done at night to avoid traffic jams. The convoy traveled at 5 kilometers an hour, and the statue was placed in an iron cage filled with foam to absorb shock. Egyptian engineers created a custom balancing rig so that the statue could be tilted when passing beneath bridges that were under 11 meters high. The scenes of the statue moving were really incredible. It was transported upright on the back of a kind of truck of some kind, and it moved very, very slowly. And because it moved very slowly, it was a bit like it was a kind of procession of a king. It was an exceptional event. Everyone showed up to see Ramses II. Everyone came out to salute the king. It was fantastic, a truly historic moment. People came onto the streets to, you know, to watch it going by and almost to pay their respects. And I think that's not that surprising, you know, given what we know of the way that ancient Egypt is viewed by modern Egypt. This was a moment that changed the history of this building because from this moment on it became a museum. Transferring the statue of Ramses II cost one million euros. While most of the artifacts came from the Museum of Cairo in Tahrir Square, there is still the delicate subject of Egyptian-owned artifacts that are currently abroad. It's a subject of divisive debate among Egyptologists. Egypt will continue to ask back for any artifacts that have left the country in an illegal or in gloomy circumstances. So this is something that will continue and this is the right of Egypt and for the upcoming generations. Determining which artifacts should return to Egypt is legally complex. The Nefertiti Bust, the Rosetta Stone and the Obelisk of Luxor are some of the most well-known artifacts outside the country. The Nefertiti Bust was discovered by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt in 1912. The miraculously intact piece has been on public display at the Neues Museum in Berlin since 1924. The Rosetta Stone was first found in Spain in Egypt. It was later retrieved by England and has been on display at the British Museum since 1802. In Paris, the obelisk at Place de la Concorde is one of the most iconic and ancient monuments in the city. It was a gift from Egypt to France in 1836 as a sign of goodwill. However, the obelisk at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican was brought to Italy So, you know, I think there are some things which, there's no argument, should go back. But there are some things which really I think need to stay where they are, the obelisks in Rome and there's literally thousands of objects in the middle and you could look at each one of those and say, well, the people who are in some way contributing to Egypt are first interested because they go to a museum in their local town or city and see a coffin or a Shabti figure or whatever it is. So, yeah, you know, I think you have to examine each of these objects on a case-by-case. Certain artifacts will never leave Egypt again. The treasures of Tutankhamen, an exhibition across the globe, has attracted millions of visitors. In 2019, Paris set the record, over 1.5 million visitors in six months. But from now on, the treasure of the pharaoh who died at age 19 will remain in Egypt. The Grand Egyptian Museum has become its final resting place, within two enormous galleries over 7,000 square meters in size. All the artifacts show only 5,000 artifacts of Tutankhamen. And the 398 objects were actually in storage. Also, this collection will be shown for the first time as never been seen before. The only one who touched this was Huard Carter. In the Grand Museum, Tutankhamen's story is told through the presentation of new invaluable pieces which have never before been shown before. When English archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, he was stunned at how well preserved the golden beds and chariots were. In one of the funeral chambers, Carter was shaken by this inscription. Death shall come on swift wings to him that toucheth the tomb of the pharaoh. In the following months, Tutankhamen's tomb And that curse seemed to spread to the construction site itself. After the Arab Spring, one of the museum's facades caught fire, although it was contained. In 2019, construction halted because of attacks near the pyramids. In 2020, the COVID-19 global health crisis forced the museum Tutankhamen, son of Akhenaten, is the most famous pharaoh thanks to his golden mask, which would launch him to fame and because his tomb was discovered intact. When we look at the plan of the tomb of Tutankhamen and we see how the pieces were stacked, we will notice that the pieces and that the people would be comforted again that the way to eternity and the way to resurrection has been secured again with the rule of King Tutankhamen. There will be five themes inside the new display. One of them is about the discovery of the tomb. Another one about the identity and the genealogy of the king. One of them about the daily life. One of them about the rebirth. And one of them about the funeral. The last of the five rooms is the funeral chamber, which houses the tomb. The final nested sarcophagus is the one containing the mummy. It is covered in carved and hammered sheets of pure gold, weighing 110 kilos. 143 jewels are scattered in the wrappings that cover the king's mummy. Part of the space is dedicated to the mummy fabrication process. The king's organs were placed in amphora. The body was then washed in palm wine, the skin coated in oil, and then it was embalmed and wrapped in linen strips. The sarcophagus represents a great king leader. The head is covered. The hook-shaped crook is designed to catch livestock by the foot, and the flail to guide the flock. The famous funeral mask, known all over the world, covers the head and shoulders of the mummy. This 11 kilogram mask is a solid gold masterpiece. This mask, in a very indescribable way, manages to catch the youth of this king, his life and his death, all in the image of his face and in the little reddish signs at the corner of his eyes. So this is a piece that makes everybody captivated when he's standing in front of it. Tin Common's mask is the centerpiece of the Grand Egyptian Museum. It is said to represent the face of the dead king. The forehead is decorated with two emblems, a vulture, the symbol of the protective goddess of Upper Egypt, and a cobra ready to strike, which represents the protective goddess of Lower Egypt. These two emblems protect the pharaoh and prove the extent of his power. His headdress is made of gold and lapis lazuli, a precious blue stone. The pharaoh's hairless face includes a fake braided beard, a symbol of power and divine affiliation. After thousands of years of perfect conservation, the beard was accidentally damaged a few years ago. In 2014, a blunder led to the beard being detached from the mask. The people in charge decided to fix it themselves instead of trusting an expert to do the job. The mask was eventually entrusted to a team of German archaeologists that restored it to its former glory. From now on, the treasures of Tutankhamen and all archaeological works will be restored and cared for by the Grand Egyptian Museum's Conservation Center. Located near the museum, the Conservation Center is spread over 22,000 buildings to ensure optimal temperatures and to protect artifacts from potential earthquakes. The artifacts conserved and restored here are between 3,000 and 6,000 years old. An underground tunnel connects the laboratories to the museum. The center has been operating since 2016 but is not open to the public. All the conservation and restoration work would have had too much of an impact on the work they're doing. So they're currently doing conservation. So you can't have all the vibration from this construction work affecting the conservation. We needed to isolate it so ultimately it seemed to make the most sense to put it along here The museum has 18 laboratories which are primarily dedicated to preserving textiles, leather, papyrus, wood, and stone. It's the biggest conservation center in the world. Its laboratories have restored over 20,000 ancient artifacts that have never been seen by the public. These are the wings of that scarab. This is really made of different stones. All this kind of silver and carillons and all this turquoise and gold. All of this was really restored by this young lady. Then the young lady, what she did, she studied, she took photographs and after that she brought them Experts and Egyptologists from all over the world are often invited to visit the conservation center. The Egyptians want the center to be the best in the world. Instead of sending artifacts abroad, the center will restore everything found in future directly to the gem because that's now the top place for storage of material. Laboratories are set up. You can inquire, you can make an appointment as a specialist, you can go and look at material. That's exactly what we need. The laboratories are much bigger than I was expecting, much bigger. The first time I went, I just couldn't believe the material because it's an amazing museum collection in its own right. But a lot of these things are not in cases, they're just on the table. So if you're lucky enough to go and see them, you think that's amazing. The most sophisticated techniques are on display. Japanese antibacterial paper is used for restoring papyrus and maintaining allowing it to breathe. Ultraviolet light is used to analyze the effects of time on these precious objects and the restoration they need. Finally, infrared photography enables precise identification of colors lost in time, such as Egyptian blue. All laboratories are equipped with scanning electron microscopes, a radiography room, a photo studio, and chemical analysis tools. As 47,000 ancient pieces have already been restored here, including the treasures of Tutankhamen. I suspect somehow the gold of Tutankhamen is more universal, actually. It's easier, you know, look at a gold thing, it's great, we love gold. We always have human beings that we always love gold. Egyptian art and architecture and visual culture of ancient Egypt is very exotic. You discover that things are hidden in the ground and then one day you reveal them. Just the fact of the gold and the size of things, so you think about the size of the pyramids or the size of the colossal statues at Abu Simbel and then all of the solid gold in Tutankhamen's tomb, it's difficult not to kind of think, that's amazing. The Grand Egyptian Museum important pyramids in their time. This is a huge undertaking on Egypt's part, right? I mean, to say that we are going to build the biggest damn museum in the world for Egyptology. It's taken a long time to build this museum. It's the biggest challenge I've ever undertaken. It was my greatest dream and now it's a reality. Every time I will visit it in the future, I will be looking at the visitors to see the reaction on the way of display. It will be the greatest museum in the world. 60,000 workers in total, 130,000 works on display, a megastructure that's 800 meters long and 40 meters high, a budget of 1 billion euros, all 5,500 pieces of Tutankhamen's treasure and 1,500 restoration laboratories. It took 20 years for this monumental structure to rise from the earth and now it's finally ready. It all began with a crazy dream a few decades ago, a complex and ambitious project nestled among the world's most famous pyramids. This massive vessel sprung in the heart of the desert, the world's largest museum, embodying the excess of the world's most famous pyramids.