logo
episode-header-image
May 2022
24m 28s

The Grand Egyptian Museum

Bbc World Service
About this episode

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?

Up next
Today
Trump and Greenland: How MAGA went Arctic
Why does President Trump really want Greenland? The Arctic territory is rich in vital minerals and oil. And it hosts an important American military base as the race for dominance in the Arctic heats up between China, Russia and the USA. But drill down beneath Trump's stated reaso ... Show More
26m 44s
Yesterday
Loving, living and dying together in the Netherlands
Els and Jan have fewer than three days left on Earth. Childhood sweethearts who met in kindergarten more than six decades ago, they know precisely when they will die. And how. On an early summer’s Monday morning they will travel to a nearby hospice. Some of their family and frien ... Show More
28m 39s
Feb 9
New climbing video game
Gaming writer Jordan Erica Webber on the epic task of building a virtual mountain for a prize-winning video game. She hears from the creators and voice actor behind the French game Cairn. 
26m 29s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2013
06: Khufu's Great Pyramid
Khufu and the Great Pyramid. Around 2580 BCE, King Khnum-Khufu ("Khnum Protects Me") came to power. His reign lasted more than 25 years, and over this quarter century, Egyptians would build the largest pyramid in history... Date c. 2580 - 2550 BCE, www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com ... Show More
31m 44s
May 2025
The ongoing mysteries of Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza
The Pyramids of Giza are among Egypt's most famous landmarks. The Great Pyramid is made up of 2.3 million stone blocks, weighing five million tonnes in total. For centuries no one has known precisely how they were built, or how the stones were transported.Using radar satellite im ... Show More
10m 23s
Jul 2025
"You CAN'T Just Drill Into It!” Giza Pyramids - Is The Truth Being Hidden? With Dr Zahi Hawass
ExpressVPN: Go to https://ExpressVPN.com/Piers and find out how you can get 4 months of ExpressVPN free! Dr Zahi Hawass is perceived by many as the number one expert in the world on the subject of Egypt's mighty Pyramids, serving as the Chief Inspector of the Great Pyramids, the ... Show More
44m 33s
Jan 2013
04: Djoser's Step Pyramid
As Egypt's "Third Dynasty" began, a new monument took shape. King Netjerykhet Djoser and his architect, Imhotep, created something unusual. The Step Pyramid rose on the western horizon, ushering in a new era of monument building... Time Period: circa 2700 – 2650 BCE Kings: ... Show More
41m 50s
May 2025
How They Built the Pyramids
In 2013, a group of French and Egyptian archaeologists discovered of cache of papyri as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza. Some of the texts were written by people who had worked on the pyramids: a tally of their daily labour ferrying stones, for instance, between quarry and build ... Show More
48m 14s
Nov 2021
Ancient Egypt: Pyramids
The Great Pyramids of Giza are some of the largest, most foreboding structures on the planet, but the mystery of how they were built still plagues historians today. Some Egyptologists think aliens provided advanced technology, while engineers see evidence they were ancient nuclea ... Show More
46m 2s
Jul 2025
What’s Under the Pyramids of Giza?
Earlier this year, Dr. Corrado Malanga and Dr. Filippo Biondi claimed they’d made a massive discovery at the Giza Complex in Egypt. Using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data, combined with their own new technology, they said they’d located massive structures hidden below the Pyra ... Show More
33m 30s
Mar 2013
07: Khafra, He Appears Like the Sun
A forgotten heir; a Great Sphinx. Following the death of King Khufu, the throne passed to one of his sons, Djed-ef-Ra. Then, it passed to Khafra ("He Appears Like Ra"). These kings are important, but only Khafra is remembered thanks to his enormous pyramid and the Great Sphinx of ... Show More
37m 4s
Feb 2024
Nefertiti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who inspired one of the best known artefacts from ancient Egypt. The Bust of Nefertiti is multicoloured and symmetrical, about 49cm/18" high and, despite the missing left eye, still holds the gaze of onlookers below its tall, blue, flat t ... Show More
49m 50s