Egyptian Museum (Tahrir)

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known as the Egyptian Museum or Cairo Museum, stands on the north side of Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. It is run by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East.

The collection began in 1835 and later grew under the French archaeologist Auguste Mariette, who founded a museum at Bulaq in 1858. The present pink neoclassical building, designed by French architect Marcel Dourgnon, opened in 1902.

The ground floor is arranged roughly in date order, from the Old Kingdom through the Greco-Roman period, with large statues, sarcophagi and stelae. Well-known pieces include the Narmer Palette, the seated statue of Khafre, statues of Rahotep and Nofret and the Amarna period art of Akhenaten. Upstairs are the gold treasures of the Tanis royal tombs, painted coffins, papyri and daily life objects.

In recent years many famous items have moved to newer museums. The royal mummies were transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in 2021, and most of the Tutankhamun collection moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. The Tahrir museum still holds well over 100,000 objects and remains a key stop for the history of the earlier dynasties.

Separate ticket prices apply for foreign and Egyptian visitors, and a photography fee is charged; flash is not allowed. The museum opens daily from 9 am to 7 pm, with split hours on Fridays. Sadat station on the Cairo Metro is directly under Tahrir Square.

The foundation stone was laid on 1 April 1897 in the presence of Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, and the museum opened on 15 November 1902. The collection had been kept at a palace in Giza before the move, which needed about five thousand wooden carts and was completed on 13 July 1902. The building was registered as an Egyptian heritage site in 1983.

The ground floor has 42 rooms of large stone works, arranged in date order along a clockwise route. In the garden, a monument to Auguste Mariette, who is buried there, is surrounded by 24 busts of other Egyptologists. In 2004 Wafaa El Saddik became the museum's first female director general.

The museum has had security problems. During the 2011 revolution, 54 objects were stolen and 70 damaged according to Zahi Hawass, and in September 2025 a 3,000-year-old gold bracelet was reported stolen and melted down, leading to four arrests. A sale room for antiquities operated in the building from 1902 until November 1979. For a full visit, give the Old Kingdom statues on the ground floor and the Tanis gold upstairs most of your time, and allow two to three hours.