Pharaohs speak in social media: diplomacy, reception and impact concerning the opening of the Gran Egyptian Museum (GEM)

Abstract

This paper analyses the opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), held on the 1st of November 2025, with the aim of examining how Pharaonic heritage shapes the political and diplomatic image of the contemporary Egyptian state and what social impact this state informational and promotional strategy has generated. Using a multidisciplinary approach that combines historical, social and Egyptological analyses tools with virtual ethnography, this study identifies the main discourses disseminated during the ceremony and their public reception. The results demonstrate that the inauguration ceremony functioned as a far-reaching diplomatic act, in which Egypt articulated messages of peace, national identity, and international cultural projection through visual and narrative resources linked to the imaginary of ancient Egypt. At the same time, social media transformed the event into a popular phenomenon marked by humour, pride, criticism and cultural debates among broad sectors of the Egyptian and international population. All of this contributed to making this ceremony a great opportunity to analyse and reflect on issues of national identity, collective memory and social participation around Egyptian heritage.