Egypt as you've never seen it
16 places. Grand Egyptian Museum, The Egyptian Museum, Tahrir, National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Coptic Museum, Gayer-Anderson Museum, Museum of Islamic Art
Ancient Egypt, shown at the scale it deserves
Beside the Giza pyramids, the Grand Egyptian Museum is the largest new museum devoted to ancient Egypt. The visit moves from Ramses II and the Grand Staircase to the main galleries and the complete Tutankhamun display.
Museum · Al-Remaya, Giza Under review
The old museum still has a character no new building can copy
Opened in 1902, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir remains one of the richest collections of ancient Egyptian material anywhere. Even after Tutankhamun moved to GEM, major holdings such as the Tanis treasures, Yuya and Thuya, and the Narmer Palette remain here.
Museum · Downtown Cairo, Cairo Under review
Egyptian history told as one continuous story
The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat follows Egypt from prehistory to the modern era. One of its most important sections is the Royal Mummies Hall, presented in a quieter and more reflective atmosphere within the museum.
Museum · Fustat – Old Cairo, Cairo Under review
Coptic art in one of Cairo’s most layered historic districts
The Coptic Museum opened in Old Cairo in 1910 through the work of Marcus Simaika Pasha. It holds the world’s largest specialist collection of Coptic art and sits among historic churches, the Roman Babylon Fortress and nearby Amr Ibn al-As Mosque.
Museum · Old Cairo, Cairo Under review
Two historic houses filled with mashrabiyas, rooms and collected objects
The Gayer-Anderson Museum occupies two historic houses built in 1545 and 1631. Gayer Anderson lived in them from 1935 to 1942, filling the rooms with furniture and objects from Egypt, the Islamic world and Asia, while the houses themselves remain a central part of the experience.
Museum · Al-Sayeda Zeinab, Cairo Checked on site
From astronomy and calligraphy to wood and ceramics
The Museum of Islamic Art opened in its Bab al-Khalq building in 1903 after collecting Islamic objects in Cairo began in 1880. Its broad collection reaches beyond religious art into science, writing, daily life and craft across many centuries and regions.
Museum · Bab al-Khalq, Cairo Under review
How a carriage became part of royal spectacle
The Royal Carriages Museum in Bulaq traces its roots to the khedivial carriage service under Khedive Ismail. Its coaches, horse equipment, uniforms and related objects reveal the mechanics and spectacle of royal ceremony under the Muhammad Ali dynasty.
Museum · Bulaq Abu al-Ela, Cairo Under review
A European art collection inside its collector’s home
The Mahmoud Khalil Museum occupies a palace built around 1915 and once home to collector and statesman Mahmoud Khalil and his wife, Emiline Hector Luce. European paintings, sculpture and decorative arts retain the intimacy of a private collection.
Museum · Dokki, Giza Under review
A modern image of Egypt carved in stone
The present Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum opened in 1962 in a building designed by Ramses Wissa Wassef as a permanent home for the pioneer of modern Egyptian sculpture. The collection shows how Mokhtar reworked ancient Egyptian, rural and nationalist imagery into a modern language.
Museum · Gezira – Zamalek, Cairo Under review
The life behind one of the Arab world’s most familiar voices
The Umm Kulthum Museum opened in 2001 in a building attached to Manasterly Palace on Rawda Island. Through clothes, photographs, letters, recordings and personal objects, it offers a compact and intimate account of the Star of the East.
Museum · Roda – Manial, Cairo Under review
Royal history through its objects.
Arms, decorations, silverware and royal gifts in Abdeen Palace museums, separate from access to the presidential palace as a whole.
Museum · Abdeen, Cairo Under review
A writer's life beside his literary neighbourhoods.
Personal objects, documents and photographs from Naguib Mahfouz's life inside the Abu al-Dhahab complex near Al-Azhar.
Museum · Al-Azhar, Cairo Under review
A visit built around a child's questions.
A children's museum and garden in Heliopolis, introducing civilisation, environment and science through displays and activities.
Museum · Heliopolis, Cairo Under review
The Prince of Poets at home by the Nile.
Karmet Ibn Hani, Ahmed Shawki’s Nile-side home, is now a small museum of manuscripts, objects and photographs inside the poet’s own residence.
Museum · Dokki, Giza Under review
The 1973 war told in a circular panorama.
The October War Panorama is a military museum built around a large circular battle display and exhibits presenting the 1973 war from an official Egyptian perspective.
Museum · Nasr City, Cairo Under review
Egypt’s memory on paper.
The Dar al-Kutub Museum at Bab al-Khalq presents manuscripts, Qurans, maps and calligraphy inside one of Egypt’s key institutions of written memory.
Museum · Bab al-Khalq, Cairo Under review