#arab spring

By Yolande Knell and Wael Hussein, Middle East correspondent in Cairo

1 November 2025

Near one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World - the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza - Egypt has officially opened what it intends as a cultural highlight of the modern age.

The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), described as the world's largest archaeological museum, is packed with some 100,000 artefacts covering some seven millennia of the country's history from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras.

Prominent Egyptologists argue that its establishment strengthens their demand for key Egyptian antiquities held in other countries to be returned – including the famed Rosetta Stone displayed at the British Museum.

A main draw of the GEM will be the entire contents of the intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, displayed together for the first time since it was found by British Egyptologist Howard Carter.

They include Tutankhamun's spectacular gold mask, throne and chariots.

"I had to think, how can we show him in a different way, because since the discovery of the tomb in 1922, about 1,800 pieces from a total of over 5,500 that were inside the tomb were on display," says Dr Tarek Tawfik, president of the International Association of Egyptologists and former head of the GEM.

"I had the idea of displaying the complete tomb, which means nothing remains in storage, nothing remains in other museums, and you get to have the complete experience, the way Howard Carter had it over a hundred years ago."

Costing some $1.2bn (£910m; €1.1bn), the vast museum complex is expected to attract up to 8m visitors a year, giving a huge boost to Egyptian tourism which has been hit by regional crises.

"We hope the Grand Egyptian Museum will usher in a new golden age of Egyptology and cultural tourism," says Ahmed Seddik, a guide and aspiring Egyptologist by the pyramids on the Giza Plateau.

Apart from the Tutankhamun exhibit and a new display of the spectacular, 4,500-year-old funerary boat of Khufu - one of the oldest and best-preserved vessels from antiquity - most of the galleries at the site have been opened to the public since last year.

"I've been organising so many tours to the museum even though it was partially open," Ahmed continues.

"Now it will be at the pinnacle of its glory. When the Tutankhamun collection opens, then you can imagine the whole world will come back, because this is an iconic Pharoah, the most famous king of all antiquity."

"It's an absolute must-see," says Spanish tourist, Raúl, who is awaiting the full public opening on 4 November.

"We're just waiting to go and check out all of the Egyptian artefacts," says Sam from London, who is on an Egypt tour. "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Another British tourist says she previously saw the Tutankhamun exhibits on display at the neoclassical Egyptian Museum in bustling Tahrir Square.

"The old museum was pretty chaotic, and it was a bit confusing," she comments.

"Hopefully the Grand Museum will be a lot easier to take in and I think you will just get more out of it."

The new museum is colossal, spanning 500,000 square metres (5.4m sq ft) – about the size of 70 football pitches.

The exterior is covered in hieroglyphs and translucent alabaster cut into triangles with a pyramid shaped entrance.

Among the GEM showstoppers are a 3,200-year-old, 16m-long suspended obelisk of the powerful pharaoh, Ramesses II, and his massive 11m-high statue.

The imposing statue was moved from close to the Cairo railway station in 2006, in a complex operation in preparation for the new institution.

A giant staircase is lined with the statues of other ancient kings and queens and on an upper floor a huge window offers a perfectly framed view of the Giza pyramids.

The museum was first proposed in 1992, during the rule of President Hosni Mubarak and construction began in 2005.

It has now taken nearly as long to complete as the Great Pyramid, according to estimates.

The project was hit by financial crises, the 2011 Arab Spring – which deposed Mubarak and led to years of turmoil - the Covid-19 pandemic, and regional wars.

"It was my dream. I'm really happy to see this museum is finally opened!" Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt's former long-time Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, tells the BBC.

The veteran archaeologist says it shows that Egyptians are equals of foreign Egyptologists when it comes to excavations, preservation of monuments and curating museums.

"Now I want two things: number one, museums to stop buying stolen artefacts and number two, I need three objects to come back: the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum, the Zodiac from the Louvre and the Bust of Nefertiti from Berlin."

Dr Hawass has set up online petitions – attracting hundreds of thousands of signatures – calling for all three items to be repatriated.

The Rosetta Stone, found in 1799, provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphics. It was discovered by the French army and was seized by the British as war booty.

A French team cut the Dendera Zodiac, an ancient Egyptian celestial map, from the Temple of Hathor in Upper Egypt in 1821.

Egypt accuses German archaeologists of smuggling the colourfully painted bust of Nefertiti, wife of Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, out of the country more than a century ago.

"We need the three objects to come as a good feeling from these three countries, as a gift, as Egypt gave the world many gifts," Dr Hawass says.

Another leading Egyptologist, Dr Monica Hanna, names the same objects, "taken under a colonialist pretext," as ones which must be repatriated.

She adds: "The GEM gives this message that Egypt has done its homework very well to officially ask for the objects."

The British Museum told the BBC that it had received "no formal requests for either the return or the loan of the Rosetta Stone from the Egyptian Government."

Egyptian Egyptologists voice their excitement about the new museum becoming a centre for academic research, driving new discoveries.

Already, Egyptian conservators based there have painstakingly restored items belonging to Tutankhamun, including his impressive armour made of textiles and leather.

According to Egyptian law, such restorations can only be done by Egyptians.

"Colleagues from around the world have been in awe of the fantastic conservation work that has been done," says Dr Tawfik, adding that the entire project is a source of great national pride.

Her name is Marianna Mechilini. She’s the fascist dictator of my fictional country named Cuore. It’s an island in the Indian Ocean, neighboring Africa. The story takes place in the early 2000s. The island already had a thriving African and Arabic nation living there for many years, but in the 1900s, Italy invaded and they colonized the small island. The colonizers implemented a strong military there to keep the people in check.

Over time, the Italians who lived there kinda separated from their homeland, and they made Cuore their new home, establishing permanent roots there. There was civil unrest and discontent within the country, leaving a hole for leadership yet to be filled. The indigenous natives didn’t want to obey, and the Italians didn’t know what to do about it. They kinda just let the natives be, but there were many disputes between the people groups over land and political control.

Marianna rose up politically years later in the 80s in her youth, coming from a rich family. She had a good image already due to her family’s history, they were known contributors to the community, paying for hospitals and schools, and they owned lots of land, so her name was fairly well known among the commoners. (Their family also had a long history of owning slaves😬)

She offered simple solutions and promises to the Italians, using emotion to evoke their spirits. She wanted to strike anger in them, she wanted power, and she wanted the natives gone. She blamed all their issues on the Africans and the Arabs. She used propaganda to depict herself as the “Mother of the Nation”, a protective force, they felt as if they could trust her.

She rose to power and was voted head of state by the Italian majority, since the indigenous people didn’t have rights to vote. They trusted her to “take care” of all their issues. She’s hated on the world scale, she’s made herself an enemy of most major countries and her nations neighbors due to how openly she mocks pan-arabism and pan-africanism. She thinks colonialism is a good thing, she doesn’t get the whole communism idea. Freedom of speech? Democracy? LIBERALISM? What’s that?

She’s proudly considered a hero in her homeland, and considered a tyrant by the rest of the world. Despite her pride in her Italian heritage, the country of Italy does NOT claim her, and they deem her as an embarrassment. She’s nothing but a shadow of Mussolini, a wannabe. Her core values are nationalism, imperialism, and Italian/white supremacy. She enforces traditional lifestyle and family values, modesty and obedience, and order. She holds strong open admiration for Benito Mussolini and his ideology. She gives no public comment on Hitler.

People disappear often in her island, namely natives and Italians who speak out against the regime. She imprisons and kills, holding public executions for traitors of the state. She’s not particularly a fan of any religion other than her own. She famously burns downs mosques, oppresses Islamic faith, and she promotes Catholicism as the state religion. A lot of the islands Islamic culture has been destroyed under her rule, and the Quran is not so easily accessible thanks to her.

She joined the UN a few years in her rule and America tends to tolerate her because she allows them rights to Cuores natural resources and allows them to set up military bases in her island. So she gets rich asf while her people collective the countrys gold for her to sell. She basically does the exact opposite of Gaddafi.

She’s known to betray countries that she cozies up with, she’s kind of an unpredictable terrorist. She doesn’t get along with MOST leaders because of her ideology and backstabbing nature, but she especially bumps heads with Gaddafi, since he is anti-colonialism and anti-Italian. They HATE each other. Absolutely cannot stand one another. When their first met, she completely brushed past him and handed him her bags, assuming that he was some type of servant or slave, not the leader of Libya.

Despite her untrustworthy nature, she serves as a little lap dog for America because she benefits from them, it’s a “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” type of situation. She gets away with all her acts of terrorism, and blames it on the Middle East (in my story, she was the one who actually caused the Lockerbie bombing and she just let Gaddafi take the blame.💀) She was really close with Reagan in her youth, which stabilized a good relationship between Cuore and America. The US basically has her do their dirty work for them, she gets dirt on her Arab leader neighbors, she attacks them, sells their military secrets, etc etc.

Meanwhile she gets to know what the CIA is up to, who’s next on their hit list, all the while she is protected and backed by them. Americas number 1 dickrider I guess. She’s just a tool America uses, she has her hands in a lot of government/CIA plots. If a leader from the Middle East/Africa was murdered or overthrown in some coup, you can almost guarantee she was involved somehow in most instances. The evidence typically leads back to her or Cuore in some way.

Even though she has major ideological differences with many of the leaders, she’s a LOSER. Outside of politics, she’s desperate for connection. Think like Aladeen from the Dictator. All the love from her people, but there’s a hole in her heart that longs for genuine relationships. She’s lonely asf because she’s like the worst human being and nobody likes her. She’s very clingy upon first meeting a leader, but she’s easily set off. Her switch ups can be very violent over the smallest things. She’s a bit of a narcissist idk, she looks down on EVERYONE. She thinks everyone is inferior to her, most of the time it’s a race thing, but not always. She just genuinely thinks she’s the smartest person and Gods gift to earth. She thinks that only she’s fit to rule. She doesn’t have much empathy, maybe a little, but it’s extremely hard for her to put herself in others shoes. She’s a narcissist with pretty bad contamination OCD. Both disorders untreated and undiagnosed, she’s like the last person you would want in power.

She really REALLY liked Saddam when she first met him, but he was always kinda uncomfortable and standoffish towards her because she obviously had some type of thing for him. She offered an alliance between the two countries, she wanted to make herself seem useful, using her nations gold to try and bribe him. But he knew how her former relationships with other countries had gone in the past, and he knew she didn’t even LIKE Arabs, so he turned her down. Because why did she want his trust so badly??

That set her off and she violently switched up on him. From that point on, she had one sided beef with him and famously kept trying to attack Iraq. But it got serious towards the 2000s. She was in Bush Jrs ear like a little rat, talking about some “weapons of mass destruction”.

Her relationship with Muammar Gaddafi is a lot more complicated. She very much had a love-hate thing for him since the day they met. He mistook her as a woman in power as some form of socialist or communist, which she laughed in his face in response. She’s had beef with him forever since he was leading before her anyways, their reigns have coexisted since the 80s. They openly insult each other in their speeches. Marianna childishly mocks him behind closed doors, and he makes sure to warn every other Arab leader of her true nature. She’s kinda considered a “bad omen” in the political world tbh, any leader that’s ever gotten too close to her or been associated with her at all really ends up getting overthrown and murdered.

The two have gotten into public arguments and Marianna has made multiple attempts on Gaddafis life. She’s attempted to poison the Colonel many many times, had her guards fire many many stray bullets during his speeches, and hijacked many many of his vehicles. All attempts unsuccessful, and the few times her plans did go through, he came out maybe slightly harmed, but still alive.

She was getting desperate by the 2000s to get him out of the picture. After distancing herself from the country for a few years previously, she suddenly teamed up again with America and agreed to help overthrow him, feigning sympathy for the Libyan people. But she didn’t actually care about them. She was just sick of Gaddafis smart mouth. She staged many videos that claimed to be real raw footage of what was happening in Libya under his rule. The US pushed for intervention and sent NATO in after much convincing from her. She spent years making up lies about the man, spreading all sorts of negative propaganda, depicting him as a monster, she had been waiting for this moment. She sat happily in her bedroom that night, celebrating with a bottle of wine as she watched the murder of Gaddafi on her television.

There’s a lot a LOT more to her character and her relationship with Gaddafi and these other Arab leaders… however this is long enough, I had to do my best to sum it up without going into too much detail😭 I’m so sorry but y’all asked for the lord

Photos from the Arab Spring in Benghazi, Libya. Photographed by Michael Christopher Brown, 2011

I am also not making any predictions about the nature or ideology of these movements. I’d love for a radical egalitarian uprising but we all got our hopes up before only to see anyone thinking that way get crushed by the state or eclipsed by Mad Max larpers.