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Top 15 Egypt Museums you have to visit – Hidden Gems

Egypt is one of the best places to vacation if you’re interested in history and Ancient Egypt. It has a lot of places and artifacts from the Pharaonic civilization and later times, and you can see them in Egypt Museums. Egypt has a lot of museums all over the country. In this article, we’ll talk about the Top 15 Egypt Museums around Egypt.

Museums in Cairo

1- The Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian Museum -Top Museums in Cairo

The Egyptian Museum is the world’s oldest Museum of ancient artifacts and is also where the world’s most extensive collection of pharaonic artifacts is kept. It has an extensive collection of things from before the dynasties to the time of the Greco-Romans. This fantastic collection chronicles 5,000 years of Egyptian history. The Egyptian Museum locates in Tahrir Square downtown.

Brief History of the Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history and houses the world’s most extensive collection of pharaonic antiquities. The Egyptian government established the Museum built in 1835 near the Ezbekieh Garden and later moved to the Cairo Citadel.

In 1855. Auguste Mariette, the first director, ordered the construction of a new museum in 1858. Previously, that place was used as a former warehouse in Boulaq. The building was located on the bank of the Nile River, and therefore, in 1878, it suffered significant damage from a flood of the Nile River.

Thus, in 1891, the Antiquities Department decided to move the collections to a safe place. This was a former royal palace in the Giza district of Cairo, and these collections remained there until 1902. By then, the Egyptian government had transferred it to the current Museum in Tahrir Square for the last time.

As mentioned earlier, the Italian company Giuseppe Garozzo and Francesco Zafrani developed this building. At the same time, the French architect Marcel Dourgnon designed it.

The architecture of the building

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities houses an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. This Museum has 120,000 pieces, with a representative number on display while the rest are in storage rooms. In 1895 there was an international competition to choose the architecture of the building.

Uniquely, this competition was the first of its kind, and the French engineer Marcel Dorgonon became the winner. The Italian construction company Garozzo Zaffarani built the Egyptian Museum in 1901 to a design by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon.

Opening of the Cairo Museum

Khedive Abbas Helmy II inaugurated the Museum in 1902. Since then, it has become a historical landmark and home to some of the world’s finest antiques. This large building is one of the largest museums in the region.

Check Our Tour( Tour to Giza Pyramids and Egyptian Museum & Cairo Layover Tour to Pyramids and Museum)

2- The Coptic Museum

The Coptic Museum -things to do in Cairo

The Coptic Museum in Coptic Cairo is housed in a garden inside the ancient Roman fortress of Babylon. It was founded in 1910 and is the largest Museum of its kind in the world, with an impressive collection of approximately 16,000 pieces exhibited in chronological order in 12 different sections. The building is divided into two wings: the old wing and the new wing.

Brief History of The Coptic Museum

The old wing was founded in 1910 and is currently under restoration. The new wing was inaugurated in 1947 and had two floors. The upper floor is divided into eight rooms that make up five different sections: the manuscripts section, with 700 critical books and 1,000 documents on display there, and 578 papyri on display in the Library, the oldest of which are written in Greek, while others were written in Greek and translated by Coptic scholars; the textile section, with a large number of Coptic fabrics; the icon section, the section for bone and ivory objects; and finally the metal parts and jewelry section.

The Museum houses the world’s most extensive collection of Coptic artwork and artifacts from a significant change in Egypt’s history. The history of the Coptic Christian religion involves the interplay of many faiths and cultures, including the ancient Egyptian deities, the pagan rites of ancient Rome and ancient Greece, the early Christian period, and Islam.

The Museum was founded in the 10s of the 20th century. But completed only at the end of the 1940s and damaged by the 1992 earthquake, followed by a vital restoration process. The richness of its presentation delights the many visitors who go there every year: not only the collections but the building embodies the Coptic style, embellished with precious inlaid ceilings, vaults, mashable (wooden windows typical of Islamic art), and elegant internal garden.

What is in the Museum?

The Coptic Museum houses the world’s most extensive collection of Christian Egyptian artifacts and chronicles the history of Egypt from the beginning to the present day. Many objects are exciting examples of religious syncretism. Among the pieces it keeps, you will find:

  • textiles
  • Frescoes and reliefs
  • manuscripts
  • religious objects
  • wood carvings
  • key parts

Of the 16,000 works of art owned by the Museum, 1,200 are on display. Among the most prominent is a tapestry decorated with a flutist, some dancers, warriors, and horse riders. Also noteworthy are the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, a collection of 13 papyrus codices from the 3rd and 4th centuries. They are written in Coptic and contain what is known as the “Gnostic Gospels.”

Don’t miss to check our related Luxury Egypt Tours for more tour packages.

3- Gayer-Anderson Museum

Gayer-Anderson Museum - Cairo attractions

The Gayer Anderson House Museum is one of the finest examples of 17th-century domestic architecture. It is located next to the Ibn Tulun Mosque and can be covered in one or two hours, making it the perfect complement to a visit to the mosque.

Who was Gayer-Anderson Pasha?

Robert Greenville Gayer-Anderson was born in 1881 in Ireland. Since he was little, he had a fondness for all objects of incredible beauty, and in adulthood, he became a collector. He studied medicine and then entered the military career. In 1907 he was assigned to the Egyptian army as a major. Installed in Egypt, he began to acquire objects of extraordinary beauty and value and became a collector of excellent reputation.

In 1935 he visited the Beit al-Kretilya buildings, which the Arab Monuments Preservation Committee was restoring. After entering into negotiations with the committee, he managed to secure possession of the building until his death. The buildings were painstakingly restored, and Gayer-Anderson’s marvelous collection remained in his quarters even after the serviceman returned to his home country. In 1944 he bequeathed his entire collection to the Egyptian people, and he finally died in 1945 in Ireland.

The collection of the Gayer-Anderson Museum

The collection is made up of objects and furniture from different eras and various parts of the Orient. In the many rooms and halls connected by labyrinthine corridors, it is possible to observe the following:

  • Furniture
  • Glassware
  • Moldings, latticework, and other architectural details
  • Among the various spaces that can be visited, the Damascus Room, the Byzantine Room, and the Persian Room stand out, all decorated and furnished with careful style.

Although it is tough to compete with the impressive collections of the Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Islamic Art, the Gayer-Anderson Museum stands out with its simple but beautiful proposal, which enchants its visitors with its simplicity and the extraordinary beauty of its objects.

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4- Islamic Museum of Cairo

Islamic Museum of Cairo

Located in the heart of Islamic Cairo, near the Al-Azhar Mosque, is the Cairo Museum of Islamic Art. It has one of the complete collections of medieval art from the Islamic civilization in the world. Its funds contain more than 100,000 pieces from all branches of Islamic art and different periods of history. The Museum keeps some unique elements that show the accuracy achieved by Muslim artisans.

The museum areas can be divided into two large areas

Those related to daily life include jewelry, weapons, textiles, and utensils.

Those that involve sciences such as medicine, engineering, and astronomy. Manuscripts and objects from these last branches, such as astrolabes, compasses, and globes, have been studied by numerous historians and provided crucial information for understanding the development of science in the Islamic world.

Galleries: The Museum’s collection is organized into 25 galleries. The Museum’s east wing contains galleries 1 to 13, which provide a chronological look at the history of Islamic art.

For its part, the west wing houses the twelve remaining galleries, which exhibit objects from other countries organized according to thematic criteria :

  • coins and weapons
  • eastern Islamic world
  • Calligraphy
  • Textiles and carpets
  • Daily life
  • water and gardens

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5- Abdeen Palace

Abdeen Palace - places to visit cairo

The Abdeen Palace is a museum and serves as one of the official residences and workplaces of the President of Egypt. The top floor of the building has been designated for use by visiting dignitaries from other countries as well as other notable individuals. If you give these considerations enough weight, you should already be familiar with the expansive dimensions of Abdeen Palace.

A Brief Overview of Abdeen Palace

Abdeen Palace was built on the site of a small mansion that belonged to Abidin Bey, an Egyptian commander and politician during the time of Muhammad Ali. Abidin Bey was one of the essential commanders of Muhammad Ali. Later in history, it was decided to build a massive palace on the site of Abidin Bey’s house. Instead of the Cairo Citadel, which had been used for the same purpose since the Middle Ages, the palace would be the center of government.

The palace’s construction began in 1863 and was completed in the following decade. The public was allowed entry to the court for the first time in 1874. After it was finished, the palace occupied a space of 24 feddans, equivalent to approximately 100,800 square meters. However, in 1921 Sultan Fuad added a massive garden encompassing 20 feddans, equal to about 84,000 square meters.

The building cost 700,000 Egyptian pounds and an additional 2 million Egyptian pounds to furnish all 500 suites within the enormous Abdeen Palace. When it came to providing the palace, no expense was spared; in fact, many people believe that it is the most expensive and luxurious palace that can be found anywhere in the world. It is also essential to remember that each ruler invested a significant amount of money into the city’s upkeep, development, and preservation during their reign.

When you visit the palace, two things that stand out are the enormous number of paintings that adorn the walls of virtually every room and the vast number of clocks, many of which are made entirely of gold. Both of these things are genuinely remarkable.

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6- The Palace of Prince Mohamed Ali (Al Manial Palace)

The Palace of Prince Mohamed Ali (Al Manial Palace) - places to visit in Cairo

On Rhoda Island in the Nile sits the grounds of the former palace that belonged to the Alawiyya dynasty and is now home to the Manial Palace and Museum. The palace and estate have been preserved as a historic house museum and estate under the direction of the Antiquities Council.

It depicts the settings and lifestyle of the Egyptian royal prince and heir apparent who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Along a tributary of the Nile sits a residential compound comprising five buildings, each of which has its distinct architectural style. These buildings are surrounded by Persian gardens located within an expansive English Landscape garden estate park.

Between 1899 and 1929, The Manial Palace was built by Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik, the uncle of King Farouk. He had it designed in a style that integrated European Art Nouveau and Rococo with many traditional Islamic architectural styles, such as Ottoman, Arab Andalusian, and Persian, creating inspired combinations in spatial design, architectural and interior decorations, and sumptuous materials.

He also designed it in a style that incorporated European Art Nouveau and Rococo with many traditional Islamic architectural styles. His extensive collections of art, furniture, clothing, silver, objets d’art, and medieval manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages were stored there. The Armenian ceramist David Ohannessian, originally from Kutahya, is responsible for creating the ceramic tile work that can be found in both the entryway and the mosque.

7- The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization - museum egyptian

The opening of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization is one of the most important tourist landmarks in Egypt in recent times. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization is one of the most prominent international museums and the only one of its kind in Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa.

It is the first Museum to focus on ancient and prehistoric civilizations. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization is in Fustat, part of Old Cairo and Egypt’s first Arab capital, and it looks out over the “Ain Al Sira” hot spring. The items in the Museum came from other museums in Egypt, such as the Cairo Museum, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Coptic Museum, and the Museum of Royal Jewels in Alexandria.

The Construction of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

There are 23,236 square meters in the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The Museum has a collection of 50,000 artifacts that show how Egyptian culture has changed since prehistoric times. The group is split into two parts, one based on a theme and the other on time.

The collection goes back to prehistoric, archaic, pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, medieval, Islamic, modern, and modern-day times. Thematically, the display shows how society, the Nile, writing, culture, material, religion, thought, and the room of the Royal Mummies all changed over time.

Check our article about A Journey to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

Museums in Alexendira 

8- The Greco-Roman Museum

The Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria

The Greco-Roman Museum of Alexandria is located in Alexandria, Egypt, and it houses collections mainly from Greek and Roman cultures. The Museum is architecturally organized around a garden patio surrounded by a colonnaded corridor, offering a selection of monumental pieces.

Brief History of the Museum

The institution was created in 1892 and initially organized on-premises on Rue Rosetta in Alexandria (Avenue de Canopus, currently Horriya). In 1895 it was transferred to the current building, built by the Italian architect Giuseppe Botti, although it contained only eleven rooms, the western wing of the building; Later, more rooms were added, giving it its current shape, at the site of the Gamal Abdul Nasser road.

The initial funds are due to a private individual, John Antoniadis, who donated his collection at the end of the 19th century to the newly founded institution.

The Museum closed its doors for renovation in 2005; however, it was not reopened to the public, and the Egyptian revolution of 2011 brought the project to a standstill. At the beginning of 2018, the restoration works were resumed.

Collection of the Museum

The Museum houses antiquities from the time of Greco-Roman domination in Egypt, dating from the 3rd century BC. C., Hellenistic Egypt and Roman Egypt. It has the most extensive collection from this period, made up of nearly 50,000 objects, including some works from the Pharaonic and Coptic times.

The black granite sculpture of Apis, the sacred Egyptian bull, stands out. There are mummies, sarcophagi, tapestries, and other objects and statues that offer a faithful overview of the Greco-Roman civilization of Egypt.

Most of the objects come from the various excavations in the city of Alexandria; There are also works of art from other sources, but always from the same chronological period. The Museum continues to receive numerous finds that are obtained as a result of chance in the archaeologically rich subsoil of the city.

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9- National Museum of Alexandria in Egypt

National Museum of Alexandria in Egypt

Alexandria National Museum, The city of Alexandria was one of the main ones during the Hellenistic empire, as well as the second largest city in Egypt and the port on the Mediterranean, which has made its culture something to learn about and highlight. In it, you can still visit several sites showing the cultures that have passed there, one of them being the National Museum of Alexandria.

Brief History of the Museum

This Museum was inaugurated at the end of 2003 and is located in a building in the style of an Italian palace that was restored for this purpose. The impressive building is situated on Tariq Al-Horreya street, which used to be Rue Fouad, and the US consulate was there before. Still, today it is one of the sites that offers a better insight into the antiquity of the city and the country.

Over time, the National Museum of Alexandria has gained more and more importance, currently considered one of the best in the country. In it, you can see around 1,800 objects that tell the city’s history through the centuries, with those that belonged to the Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic, and Islamic eras and some other recent ones from the nineteenth century.

Among the objects seen from the pharaonic period is a statue of King Mankaure, who built the third pyramid of Giza, a bust of Akhenaten, and a good number of tables, tools, and statues of the gods. From the Greco-Roman era, there are some painted terracotta figures of Greek women, and from the Roman period, the bust of Emperor Adrian, as well as scientific reports of the human body that were made in the city at that time.

On the floor dedicated to Coptic and Islamic artifacts, you can see some icons of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the Last Supper, as well as clothes decorated with gold and silver crosses, incense burners, doors inlaid with ivory, chandeliers, ceramics decorated, jewelry, crystal plates and glasses, watches, and rings, some of which belonged to the ancient royal family of Egypt.

10- The Attic Underwater Museum

The Attic Underwater Museum

It is one of the most important historical museums in Alexandria. The City of Alexandria sank during the 7th and 8th centuries as water from the Mediterranean flooded the Pharaonic and Greek cities. These sunken monuments include the Temple of Heraklion, which was dedicated to Amun, Hercules, and Junsu, ruins of the town in Ptolemaic times, giant statues, ships, and royal gold jewelry.

11- The Museums of the Library of Alexandria

The Museums of the Library of Alexandria

The Library of Alexandria includes four museums; the Sadat Museum (dedicated to contemporary modern history), the Museum of Rare Books and Manuscripts, the Museum of the History of Science, and the related to ancient Egypt, the Museum of Antiquity, which houses artifacts discovered at the site of the Library and the sunken monuments of the old city.

Read the full article about the Alexandria Library

12- Royal Jewellery Museum

Royal Jewellery Museum

The Royal Jewelry Museum of Egypt, which can be found in the Zizenia district of Alexandria, is one of the largest museums in Egypt, covering a total area of around 4,185 square meters. The most priceless artifacts are displayed at the Royal Jewelry Museum, such as the jewelry and ornaments that the last Egyptian royal family wore for decades.

The Museum is truly remarkable, as it is located in the 19th-century palace of Princess Fatema El Zahraa, a true architectural masterpiece. Some of the pieces displayed in the Royal Jewelry Museum date back to 1805, when Mohamed Ali Pasha became Khedive of Egypt. When Pasha took power, Egypt gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, and his dynasty remained in force for the next 147 years.

The city of Alexandria, Egypt history is full of many ancient civilizations and cultures, such as the Ptolemies, the Greeks, and the Romans. Read our article about  Tourist Attractions in Alexandria to know more!

Museum in Luxour 

13- The Luxor Museum

The Luxor Museum - Museum in Luxour 

It is located south of the Luxor Temple and north of the Karnak Temple, facing the Nile. The Luxor Museum is known as one of Egypt’s most carefully assembled exhibits of antiquities. Most of its exhibits come from temples and other constructions in the Luxor area.

Museum highlights include sculptural representations of Amenhotep III, under whose reign many of Luxor’s temples were built. There are also several objects from the controversial opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

For many visitors, the top attractions here are also among the newer: the mummies of pharaohs Ahmose I and Ramesses I, which were unveiled to the public with much fanfare in 2004. They have displayed, without their bandages, a frightening but fascinating spectacle.

Read more about Luxor Attractions:

14- Mummification Museum

Mummification Museum - Museum in Luxour 

The Mummification Museum, It is an institution with pedagogical purposes, which invites an in-depth study of the history and religious bases on which the processes by which the ancient Egyptians fired and preserved their deceased was based, preparing them for the path to a new life.

Then transfer to the Mummification Museum located in the Egyptian city of Luxor. It is located on the Corniche, opposite the Mina Palace Hotel, north of the Luxor Temple, overlooking the Nile River.

The Museum aims to provide visitors with an understanding of the ancient art of mummification. The ancient Egyptians applied embalming techniques to many species, not just dead humans. Cat, fish, and crocodile mummies are on display in this unique Museum, where you can also get an idea of ​​the tools used.

Booking our Tour to Valley of the Queens and Mummification Museum

Museum in Aswan 

15- Nubian Museum

Nubian Museum - Egypt Museums

The Nubian Museum, which opened in 1997 after ten years of planning, is now regarded as one of Egypt’s most important museums. The Museum’s creation combined the efforts of local researchers with the assistance of UNESCO to preserve ancient Egyptian monuments that had been rescued from the waters of the Nile and those discovered during operations.

Check our article Things to do in Luxor and Aswan

Discover All of Egypt With Us

Egypt always has everything new for its tourists, so let’s visit and discover this new Museum by booking a day tour with the other Old Cairo attractions of Mosques, Churches, bazaars, and more. With our Egypt vacation packages, enjoy a different historical experience in Cairo with a Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan.

We hope this article for the Egypt itinerary has helped you figure out how to plan your trip. If you want your trip to Egypt to go well, don’t miss these essential guides that will help you plan from start to finish:

Good Trip!

 

 

 

About the author

I am a content creator, especially in the travel where he strives to evoke a strong sense of place in his write-ups.

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