Foto: El proyecto, firmado por Shih-Fu Peng, se asemeja a un tejado que abraza al desierto y que refleja las tres pirámides de 4.000 años. (AP)
Costará 550 millones dólares y albergará 100.000 piezas arqueológicas, entre ellas la momia de Tutankamón y todo su ajuar funerario.
En el año 2010, la planicie de Giza que, sobre las cabezas de El Cairo, alberga las tres grandes pirámides de Keops, Kefren y Micerinos y la enigmática esfinge, tendrá un nuevo inquilino. Se trata del nuevo Museo Arqueológico, que vendrá a aliviar al sobrecargado y vetusto Museo Egipcio de El Cairo y que, según las autoridades egipcias, será "el museo más grande del mundo". El edificio costará 550 millones de dólares, según los cálculos del Ministerio egipcio de Cultura, y ha sido ideado por el arquitecto irlandés de de origen nipón Shih-Fu Peng, del estudio dublinés Heneghan Peng Architects.
Mohamed Ghoneim, director del Comité Ejecutivo del proyecto, ha revelado hoy que Egipto negocia con el banco de Cooperación Internacional de Japón (BCIJ) la concesión de un crédito a largo plazo para financiar la obra. "Con ese objetivo, hoy nos hemos reunido con una delegación de la entidad bancaria japonesa, que estudia los aspectos del proyecto y su viabilidad económica, a fin de evitar perdidas", ha explicado Ghoneim en rueda de prensa. Por su parte, Yaser Mansour, coordinador del proyecto, ha indicado que entre septiembre y diciembre próximos visitarán Egipto otras dos delegaciones del BCIJ para completar su estudios y evaluar el monto y las condiciones del préstamo.
El plan prevé la edificación de un moderno inmueble ubicado a dos kilómetros de la meseta de Giza, sobre las que se yerguen las tres grandes pirámides y la esfinge, a 20 kilómetros del centro de la capital egipcia. El edificio albergará un total de 100.000 piezas arqueológicas que datan de las dinastías faraónicas que gobernaron Egipto entre los años 3600 y 341 antes de Cristo, y que actualmente son exhibidas en el conocido museo de la Plaza del Tahrir, en pleno centro de El Cairo. El Museo de El Cairo, de los pocos de todo el mundo que sigue funcionando sin aire acondicionado, fue inaugurado en 1902 y en dos de sus plantas, que contienen la exposición al público, se exhiben más de 120.000 piezas, aunque la mayoría de sus fondos permanecen ocultos por falta de espacio.
Bajo tierra para respetar el paisaje
Aún así, para visitarlo completo hacen faltan 365 días dedicando dos escasos minutos a cada pieza, según recuerdan sus guías oficiales. Además, el nuevo museo dedicará una parte importante de su espacio a la recreación, por medio de maquetas, de los diferentes complejos templarios y a la exposición de mapas y vídeos que permitirán a los visitantes acercarse a los lugares arqueológicos donde fueron hallados los tesoros. Precisamente lo que se echa de menos en el antiguo museo que, con un concepto de primero del siglo pasado, por toda explicación de las piezas se ofrece su nombre, lugar del descubrimiento y fecha.
Las 100.000 piezas del nuevo museo se visitarán por rutas temáticas: el entorno geográfico, la época histórica, la religión, la sociedad y la cultura. La estrella de la exposición será, al igual que sucede en el antiguo museo, la sala dedicada al tesoro de Tutankamón, cuya tumba, la única de un faraón descubierta intacta, será recreada en su estado original con unas 3.850 piezas, muchas de ellas almacenadas en los sótanos del actual museo. En cuanto a las obras de construcción, Masour ha explicado que ya se ha comenzado a preparar la superficie de 480.000 metros cuadrados sobre la que se edificará el nuevo Museo Egipcio, un moderno edificio que se asemeja a un tejado de cristal y que reflejará a las pirámides, de 4.000 años de antigüedad.
Pese a la magnitud de la nueva edificación, gran parte de ella será construida bajo tierra para conservar el paisaje de las pirámides, una de las siete maravillas del mundo. "En septiembre próximo comenzaremos a construir la sala de restauración de las piezas arqueológicas, la planta de energía eléctrica y el sistema contra incendios", ha indicado Mansour, quien ha pronosticado que la construcción del museo concluirá el 2010.
Fuente: ELPAIS.es / EFE - Madrid / El Cairo, 22 de junio de 2005
Enlace: http://www.elpais.es/articulo.html?d_date=&xref=20050622elpepucul_3&type=Tes&anchor=elpporcul
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Busca Egipto construir el mayor museo del mundo
El ministro egipcio de Cultura, Faruq Hosni, anuncio hoy que su país recurrirá a donaciones internacionales para financiar la construcción del Nuevo Museo Egipcio, que se confía sea el mayor del mundo.
"Me he reunido con mi colega el ministro del Turismo, Ahmed al Magrebi, para coordinar la recolección de donaciones" declaró en rueda de prensa Hosni, que precisó que el nuevo museo exigirá un desembolso de 550 millones de dólares.
Hosni señaló que entre los planes que se barajan para recolectar fondos figura el de contar con la asesoría de una compañía especializada en la búsqueda de recursos financieros y estudiar una oferta japonesa en forma de donación o préstamos subvencionados.
El coordinador general del proyecto, el arquitecto Yaser Mansour, precisó en unas declaraciones a EFE que se necesitan donaciones por un monto de aproximadamente 170 millones de dólares.
Esa cantidad completaría el presupuesto ya previsto, que incluye cien millones de dólares aportados por el ministerio de Cultura, y los 260 que supone "la oferta japonesa, aunque esta aún es objeto de estudio", agregó Mansour.
El arquitecto adelantó que el Nuevo Museo Egipcio, que estará situado en un terreno próximo a las pirámides de Giza, en las cercanías de El Cairo, será el más grande del mundo, ya que se le ha asignado una superficie total de 480 mil metros cuadrados: 92 mil para el edificio y el resto para jardines.
La construcción del museo comenzará a fines del año próximo, después de que se concluya la edificación del centro de restauración de piezas arqueológicas y la instalación de sistemas eléctricos y contra incendios.
El jefe del Comité Ejecutivo del proyecto, Mohamed Ghoneim, dijo a EFE que alrededor de las 100 mil antigüedades que actualmente se exhiben en el Museo Egipcio, situado en el centro de El Cairo, se trasladarán primero al centro de restauración.
"El actual Museo Egipcio seguirá abierto al público para exhibir un total de 15 mil piezas arqueológicas de la historia de la evolución del arte faraónico", puntualizó Ghoneim, que agregó que el nuevo museo se inaugurará en 2010.
Fuente: El Universal Online, 23 de marzo de 2005
Enlace: http://estadis.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/274088.html
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Museum of the millennium
An architect from the Republic of Ireland has won the international competition to design a national museum overlooking the Pyramids of Giza. Nevine El-Aref attended last Tuesday's awards ceremony
Strains of classical music filled the air of Cairo Museum in Tahrir Square as Mrs Suzanne Mubarak and Culture Minister Farouk Hosni presented awards to the three finalists in the international competition to design the Grand Museum of Egypt.
The winner, architect Shih-Fu Peng of the Dublin firm Heneghan, created a partially underground desert-hugging design with a terraced roofline reflecting the three Pyramids of Giza. Peng's designs will cover an area of approximately 500,000 square metres of land and will include an exhibition space of 38,000 square metres.
"The Grand Museum, to be built on 117 feddans of land immediately to the north of Giza, will at last see the light of day after many years of planning. It is the apex of Egypt's efforts to protect its heritage through the ages," said Mrs Mubarak, who went on to explain that the museum's 130,000 artefacts will span from predynastic times through to the early Roman period.
Hosni described the design of the new museum as having an aesthetic relationship with the Pyramids. The most important object to be housed by the museum will be funerary treasures of the boy- king Tutankhamun and of Hetep-Heres, the mother of Khufu, as well as the marvellous collection of Yuya and Thuya, the grandparents of Akhenaten, objects from the tomb of Sennedjem, the principle artist during the reign of Ramses II, and the royal mummies and treasures of Tanis.
These items are currently on display in various galleries in the over-crowded, 100-year-old Egyptian Museum, which is exposed to pollution and vibrations from Cairo's most crowded traffic zone. "The aim of this new museum is to create the best environment to display these priceless treasures with better lighting and more information in order to do justice to our heritage," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly.
The mission of the museum is to preserve, document, conserve, research and exhibit collections, as well as to educate and entertain visitors. The idea of creating a new museum to house the best of Egypt's national treasures arose from an urgent need for exhibition space. After much debate, a site was finally chosen at Giza, where President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone on 4 February 2002.
The Grand Museum will not, however, replace the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. "It will continue to house 10,000 masterpieces of Pharaonic art and sculpture from the different periods of history," said Farouk Hosni.
Mohamed Ghoneim, head of the executive authority of the project, explained that the specifications on which architects worked had been based on a feasibility study carried out by the Italian government. The architects were instructed to create designs for a luxurious complex that will expand visitors' knowledge and enrich their museum experience through interactive techniques and technologies. A special section for children will be created in order to help youngsters learn about their heritage. Each aspect of the museum is being carefully considered, from the environmental impact of the project to the use of computerised simulations and the selection of objects to be exhibited.
Mohamed Saleh, the director of the Egyptology unit of the museum, described the museum's thematic displays, beginning with one on the physical environment depicting the River Nile, valleys, swamps, deserts and oases. The second theme will be kingship and the state, featuring traditions, building activities and wars in various dynasties. The third will display Pharaonic religion as practiced under the Pharaoh Akhenaten during the Amarna Period. A final display will portray the daily lives of the Ancient Egyptians, their sports, games, music, arts and crafts as well as their cultural and social norms.
The museum will be equipped to cope with a large number of visitors, which experts estimate will reach as many as three million annually. It will also serve as a fully-computerised information centre for Egyptologists. A training centre will also be created where short courses will be given to Egyptologists, museum curators and conservationists. Specialised courses for IT specialists will also be held. In addition, extensive restaurant and shopping facilities are being planned.
In the first phase of the museum design competition, from 7 May to 17 August, 2002, a nine-member jury of architects, Egyptologists and museologists from Egypt, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Italy, France and Korea selected 20 designs out of a total of 1,557 submissions from 83 countries.
In the second phase, from 17 December, 2002 to 17 March, 2003, the competing designs were narrowed down to six contenders. The jury convened from 27 April to 2 May, when submissions from Ireland, Austria and Italy were chosen as final contestants. Finally, on Tuesday, 9 June, the results were announced -- Ireland was the winner.
The first prize of $250,000 went to Peng. Austrian architect Helmut Swiczinsky took second place, receiving $150,000, and the Italian Renato Rizzi came in third and received $100,000.
The construction of the museum will cost $350 million and will be financed through international grants and soft loans, a fund provided by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, as well as through an international fundraising campaign led by World Bank experts. During the press conference convened to announce the results of the competition, Hosni explained that World Bank President James Wolfensohn visited the site of the new museum two months ago and it is "the largest museum in the world to date". Wolfensohn called for international support for the project and said that the World Bank would be willing to cooperate with the Ministry of Culture in developing financial resources and offering technical expertise.
Meanwhile, the Arab Development Fund has offered an initial grant of $1 million. Hosni said that the museum will be able to recover its construction costs within 12 years if, as he anticipates, 15,000 people visit the museum each day.
The Grand Museum will do far more than merely exhibit artefacts. Through new activities and services employing the latest advances in the field of museology, the museum will contribute to the development of tourism in Egypt and meet the varied tastes and needs of visitors from around the world to promote learning about Ancient Egypt. In these ways, it will boost Egypt's cultural image both nationally and internationally.
Fuente: © Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly
Enlace: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/642/he1.htm
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The ancients come home
A fund-raising campaign to support the planned Grand Egyptian Museum was launched last week by the Ministry of Culture, reports Nevine El-Aref
A dozen journalists and photographers sit glued to a large TV screen as a computer simulation takes them on a virtual tour of the projected Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), the most ambitious archaeological museum ever planned.
The GEM will be situated on the Giza plateau, and the design of the museum makes more than a nodding pass to landscape of the desert. The museum complex will centre on the Dunal Eye, an area containing the main exhibition spaces around which will spread a network of streets, piazzas and bridges, linking together the museum's many sections.
The design is by Shih-Fu Peng, of the Dublin firm Heneghan, winners of the international architectural competition held in 2003. The museum, says Peng, will link modern Cairo to the ancient Pyramids, and will be partly ringed by a desert wall containing half a million semi-precious stones.
"The GEM's façade will be constructed of translucent alabaster, allowing the day-light to penetrate inside the museum's halls," says Yasser Mansour, the GEM general coordinator guiding viewers along their virtual trip.
The museum's grand staircase will follow a chronological route through the collections, culminating in a view of the Pyramids from the uppermost floor.
The collections themselves will be organised thematically, beginning with the physical environment of the Nile valley and the surrounding desert and oases. Other displays will focus on kingship and the state, religious practices during the Amarna period and on the daily lives of the ancient Egyptians, their sports, games, music, arts and crafts as well as their cultural and social practices.
A separate building will house the conservatory, library, mediatheque and other resources. A large piazza will separate the Eye from a series of flexible spaces, including an auditorium that can be converted into three smaller conference rooms, temporary exhibition spaces and commercial areas.
Around the Dunal Eye gardens will be landscaped according to the topography of the site, in a pattern of spirals.
"The GEM really is a gem in the parched Giza desert. It will stand as a beacon to the oldest human civilisation in the world," said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. He then asked the international community to help raise the funding necessary for the project, projected at $550,000,000.
Hosni also called on Egyptians to shoulder part of the burden of bringing the plans to life, suggesting that a public subscription be launched in similar to what happened when Mahmoud Mukhtar carved the well known statue of "Egypt's Awakening".
"In building a state-of-the-art museum near the Pyramids of Giza we want to create the best environment for the display of our priceless treasures. There will be more space, better lighting and more information available, and will do justice to our priceless heritage," Hosni told Al-Ahram Weekly, as he described the new museum as one of the "world's most ambitious projects".
In 2002 the Arab Development Fund donated $1 million to the project, which helped finance the international architectural competition. The Japanese government has already indicated its intention to contribute to the building costs, either with a long term loan or grant, while the actual running costs of the institution will be met by the Ministry of Culture and the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The World Bank, Hosni said, had declined to assist with funding, though the ministry will approach the bank's outgoing president, James Wolfensohn, who runs a consultancy specialising in fund-raising.
Tourism Minister Ahmed El-Maghrabi described the project as "a High Dam for Cairo" that will attract a million extra tourists annually to Egypt's capital.
A Ministry of Culture committee comprising senior officials, architects and engineers, is already selecting the contractor who will prepare the ground for construction, revealed Farouk Abdel-Salam, first undersecretary at the ministry. He expects the result to be announced by the end of April. Within four months the 480,000 square metre site is expected to be ready for the laying of the museum's foundations.
"In order to save time the restoration of more than 100,000 artefacts will proceed simultaneously with the construction of the main museum building which we plan to complete by 2009," said Abdel-Salam.
The idea of a new museum was first broached in 1996 but the shelved owing to a lack of funding. The idea resurfaced in 2001, when the Ministry of Culture launched an international architectural competition for the design of a new museum. After much debate, a site was finally selected in Giza, and on 4 February 2002 President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone.
During the first phase of the competition, from 7 May to 17 August 2002, a nine-member jury of architects, Egyptologists and museologists from Egypt, the UK, Mexico, Italy, France and Korea, selected 20 designs from the 1,557 submitted from architectural practices in 83 countries. In the second phase, from 17 December 2002 to 17 March 2003, these were narrowed down to six and then three. The first prize of $250,000 went to Peng. Austrian architect Helmut Swiczinsky took second place, receiving $150,000, while the Italian Renato Rizzi came third and received $100,000.
It is not planned that the GEM will replace the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. "That will continue to house 10,000 masterpieces of Pharaonic art and sculpture from different periods of history," said Hosni.
Mohamed Ghoneim, head of project coordination, said that a special section for children will be created in order to help youngsters learn about their heritage.
The museum will be equipped to cope with an estimated three million visitors annually. It will also house a fully-computerised information centre for Egyptologists and a training centre where short courses on Egyptology will be given to museum curators and conservationists. Specialised courses for IT specialists will also be held and extensive restaurant and shopping facilities are being planned.
Fuente: © Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly
Enlace: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/737/eg6.htm
