Arab News: GIZA: The Grand Egyptian Museum marked the first anniversary of its opening on Sunday by launching an “Eternal Sun” light experience in its Grand Hall.

The 35-minute show is offered daily after official visiting hours in Arabic and English, except on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

“Eternal Sun invites you on a 35-minute immersive journey that evokes wonder and brings you closer to Egypt’s past and present in a way you’ve never experienced before,” the museum states on its official page.

On Sunday, the museum also announced new admission prices, including increases of EGP20 (under $1) for Egyptian adults and $5 for foreign adults.

GEM CEO Dr. Ahmed Ghoneim said the museum recorded between 5.2 million and 5.3 million visits in its first year. Speaking on the MBC Masr program Al-Hekaya, he said the museum had also hosted 60 official visits by heads of state, kings and prime ministers from various countries.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed particular admiration for the golden mask of King Tutankhamun and a statue of Queen Hatshepsut during his visit last week.

Located near the Giza Pyramids, the museum houses more than 57,000 artifacts in the Tutankhamun Galleries, Main Galleries, Grand Hall, Grand Staircase and Khufu’s Boat Museum. It has 40,000 sq. meters of exhibition space, including 7,500 sq. meters dedicated to the treasures of King Tutankhamun.

One of its main attractions is the 4,600-year-old solar boat of King Khufu, the pharaoh credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza. The 43-meter-long wooden vessel, discovered in the 1950s, was buried beside the pyramid for Khufu, who is also known as Cheops.

Former GEM director Dr. Tarek Tawfik told Arab News: “The continuous flow of national and international visitors since the opening of the King Tutankhamun galleries shows that the fascination is unbroken.

“And that the new display of the complete Tutankhamun has been well received by enthusiastic tourists, professional academics and hundreds of thousands of proud Egyptians interested in their amazing heritage.”

He added that more than 5,000 artifacts belonging to the “Golden King” are displayed together for the first time.

The objects were brought together from storage facilities, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and the Luxor Museum. Modern presentation techniques tell the king’s story through a fresh curatorial approach that differs from traditional exhibition styles.

British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter discovered the treasures in Tutankhamun’s tomb on Luxor’s West Bank in 1922.

The gallery’s design presents the objects as Carter and his team would have found them 104 years ago, while taking visitors through the pharaoh’s life and 10-year reign from around 1333 B.C.

The Main Galleries explore three central themes — beliefs, society and kingship — across different periods of ancient Egyptian history, from prehistory and the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms to the Greco-Roman period.

The museum includes a 32,000 sq. meter restoration center, the largest in the Middle East, with 16 specialized laboratories. Last October, an Egyptian-Japanese team completed the restoration and installation of 16 wooden pieces from the floor of King Khufu’s second solar boat.