---
node: spot_cairo_egyptian_museum
type: spot
slug: egyptian_museum
destination: dest_cairo
title: "Egyptian Museum"
lead: "The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square opened in 1902 and holds around 120,000 objects, the world's largest collection of pharaonic antiquities. Its headline pieces have moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, and what remains is still more than a day's looking."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_cairo_egyptian_museum.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:By_ovedc_-_Egyptian_Museum_(Cairo)_-_139_-(cropped).jpg"
image_author: "Ovedc"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The building itself is part of the story: a purpose-built neoclassical hall of 1902, crowded, labelled by hand in places, and displayed in a manner that has barely changed in a century. Tutankhamun's treasures and the royal mummies have gone to Giza and to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation respectively. What stays is the depth — Old Kingdom statuary, Middle Kingdom models, the Amarna room and case after case of daily objects.

## Highlights

The Old Kingdom galleries on the ground floor hold Khafre enthroned, the Menkaure triads and the painted pair of Rahotep and Nofret, and they are the reason to come. Upstairs, the wooden tomb models show Egyptian working life more directly than any tomb painting. Go early; the museum is hot by midday and the lighting depends on the sun.