The Grand Egyptian Museum
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
More than 10 years and one billion dollars in the making, the Grand Egyptian Museum is the sort of big statement architecture the Pharaohs would surely have respected. Built on a 120-acre site, just 2km from the pyramids of Giza, and housing 55,000 objects, this will be the world’s largest archaeological museum, served by a purpose-built international airport. It is hoped this prestige project will place Cairo back on the global map as the Egyptian government encourages the revival of mass tourism after a turbulent and damaging decade. Will it work?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I had this secret. I robbed banks in my spare time. |
| 0:06.3 | Lives less ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:09.6 | This is not a good thing to do because police are after you. |
| 0:14.8 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:21.4 | I'm in the old Egyptian Museum in downtown Cairo. |
| 0:24.6 | This is the original museum created over 120 years ago. |
| 0:29.4 | And here it's stored extraordinary objects from ancient Egypt, |
| 0:34.0 | from the valley of the kings, from the pyramids. |
| 0:37.2 | And it's where 30 years ago I last came. |
| 0:40.6 | And so busy was the museum that the only way to ensure I could get to see |
| 0:45.0 | the most famous objects here, which are of course the objects from |
| 0:48.4 | Tutankhamun's tomb, was to get your ticket and run or run |
| 0:53.6 | with the move as fast as you could to get to Tutankhamun's exhibition |
| 0:57.9 | and to stare that golden mask face to face for about a quarter |
| 1:03.3 | an hour before the crowd caught up with you. |
| 1:05.7 | A bit of a breathless way of seeing great exhibits. |
| 1:09.7 | Well, now the Egyptian's decided this museum is out of date. |
| 1:14.6 | It certainly looks a little bit tired today and they have decided instead |
| 1:19.4 | that all these wonderful things as how in Cairo described the objects |
| 1:23.4 | in Tutankhamun's tomb, we need to discover them a hundred years ago |
| 1:26.6 | this year to serve a much grander setting. |
| 1:30.4 | I'm Jonathan Clancy, architecture critic and historian and I've been |
... |
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