CAIRO, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Visitors from around the world gathered at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) on Monday to celebrate International Museum Day through cultural performances, interactive activities, and discussions highlighting the role of museums in promoting dialogue and unity.
Outside one of the museum's entrances, children and adults added colors and drawings to a large mural themed around this year's International Council of Museums slogan, "Museums Uniting a Divided World." The artwork featured pyramids, statues, flowers, and landmarks from different cultures.
The event also included performances by cultural troupes from countries including China, India, Germany, Türkiye and Spain, while visitors participated in discussions with Egyptologists and museum curators about ancient Egyptian civilization and museum heritage.
Dalia Mokbel, a teacher at an international school in Egypt, said she brought her students to the museum to combine learning with cultural activities.
"It's such a special day and a special occasion. I am so proud of this magnificent museum," she said, referring to the International Museum Day, which falls on May 18 annually.
Among the foreign visitors was Lin Hongjie from Shanghai, who said he had learned about the museum through Chinese social media before traveling to Egypt.
"Everyone says the GEM is truly worth visiting, because it is spectacular and houses a vast collection of extremely precious artifacts," he said.
The museum also hosted an international symposium attended by museum specialists and heritage experts discussing the role of museums in cultural understanding and sustainability.
Khaled Hassan, the GEM's deputy CEO for antiquity affairs, said the celebration aimed to bring together people of different nationalities and cultures at a time marked by wars and global divisions.
"The message to the whole world is that museums play a very important role in preserving heritage and identity, and in uniting a divided world," he said.
Located on the Giza Plateau, just 2 kilometers from the Pyramids and the Sphinx, the GEM spans around 500,000 square meters, establishing it as the world's largest museum dedicated to a single civilization.
