When Did the Grand Egyptian Museum Open, and When Is It Open Now?

The Official Opening Ceremony

President El-Sisi attended the ceremony on Saturday 1 November 2025, which the State Information Service covered as the historic opening of the GEM, and the museum opened to the public after it. Much of the building, including the Grand Staircase, had welcomed visitors before. The ceremony added the complete picture: the whole Tutankhamun collection shown together for the first time since its discovery, as UNESCO describes it.

Why It Took So Long

The BBC lists the causes of the long wait: financial crises, the Arab Spring, the Covid-19 pandemic and regional wars. For a traveller today one point remains. Older posts still describe a museum about to open or only partly open, so plan around the current official hours in the table below.

What Is on Show

UNESCO gives the scale: some 100,000 artefacts across more than 500,000 square metres. The Grand Staircase covers 6,000 square metres and rises six stories, so it is the first big room most visitors walk through. The Tutankhamun Galleries hold the complete collection from the tomb, and admission covers them with no separate ticket.

If the collection is your main reason to go, read the Tutankhamun Gallery guide first, because photography is banned in designated areas there.

Weekly Hours and Last Entry

The table sets out the official weekly hours from the museum's ticketing site, with the complex, the galleries and the last entry for each type of day.

Outside the Normal Hours

The sunrise tour runs daily from 6:30 to 8:30 AM by prior booking, before the 9:00 AM gallery opening. Eternal Sun is a separate immersive show after closing hours, and its tickets do not include gallery admission. Children under 6 cannot attend it and under-15s need an adult.

Open All Week

The official ticketing site shows opening hours for all seven days, with galleries open from 9:00 AM daily. There is no weekly closing day to plan around, which makes the GEM easy to fit into a short Cairo stay.

What can still go wrong is the ticket. Official tickets are valid only for the date and time booked, allow a single entry and carry the visitor's name. They are non-refundable after purchase, and the only exception is force majeure as determined by GEM. Check the date twice before you pay.

Seeing It in Person

The State Information Service published its coverage of the ceremony on Saturday 1 November 2025, and CBS News and the BBC reported on it too. The rooms the cameras showed are open on any normal day: the Grand Staircase, 6,000 square metres over six stories, and the Tutankhamun Galleries with the complete collection.

A guide turns that into a story. The private Egyptologist museum tour costs $25 per person for 3 to 5 hours, rated 4.9 from 332 reviews, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Prices, Length and Refund Terms

The table compares every ticket and tour on this site by price per person, length of the day and refund terms, using the figures on each listing.

How to Buy Direct

The official ticketing site is tickets.gem.eg, and visit-gem.com redirects to it. Tickets are sold only there, and the museum is not responsible for tickets bought elsewhere. You choose an Admission Ticket or a Guided Tour Ticket, which is a group tour with other visitors rather than a private one, then the date, language, entry time and quantity.

Time Inside by Type of Visit

The museum's own group guided tour lasts about 2 hours and covers the main highlights. The private Egyptologist museum tour runs 3 to 5 hours, with room for the Tutankhamun Galleries at your own pace. Pairing the museum with the pyramids takes a full day: 7 to 8 hours on the museum, pyramids and Sphinx tour with lunch, rated 4.8 from 5,281 reviews, and 8 to 10 hours on the 8-Hour Private Tour of the Pyramids and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

On a regular day last entry is about 5:00 PM, so start by early afternoon at the latest.

Morning, Evening or Sunrise

The complex opens at 8:30 AM, half an hour before the galleries. Being at the door then gives you the full 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM entry window on a regular day and the afternoon free for the pyramids. On Saturday and Wednesday the galleries stay open until 9:00 PM, which suits a museum visit after a morning on the plateau.

The museum's sunrise tour runs daily from 6:30 to 8:30 AM by prior booking. For the way in, see where the Grand Egyptian Museum is.

Included, Free and Extra

One admission covers the exhibition galleries, including the Tutankhamun Galleries, on the date and time you booked. Children under 6 and visitors with disabilities enter free on every day of the week with valid ID, and every discount needs ID too. A child under 6 who joins a guided tour still pays the guided-tour difference.

Eternal Sun is a separate ticket that does not include the galleries.

Rules at the Door and Inside

Bags larger than 40 x 40 cm go to the cloakroom, and outside food and drink are not allowed. Flash photography, tripods, selfie sticks, drones and live streaming are not permitted, and personal photos are fine except in designated areas. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

A small day bag saves a stop at the cloakroom.