Egyptian Museum, Cairo

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An obvious must-see, the museum contains the most amazing collection, from the gold mask of Tutankhamon to the humblest pottery items, and even some fabric clothing items several thousand years old. There are tiny items such as tools and some massive sandstone statues, and fascinating original photographs taken back in the nineteen-twenties & thirties at the moment the explorers discovered the items which are displayed. There's so much that there's really too much to absorb.

Entry fee is LE50. There's a separate chamber containing the royal mummies, entry to which is LE100. No photography is allowed inside the museum. (Their website gives different information).

I must say that I was disappointed that, like Cairo in general, the museum itself is badly maintained, run down, dingy. Even most of the exhibits are covered with dust and the display cases and signage are very poor quality and not cared for. That detracts from the splendour of the exhibits.

Also be prepared for big queues, for tour groups of 20 or 30 blocking the aisles and exhibits. And the heavy security all around the perimeter, with heavily armed para-military police, road blocks, metal detectors etc.

As a single female traveller I was slightly worried about being in Egypt on my own. But
the minute I was picked up at the airport by the Habibi tours representative, I knew that
everything was going to be ok. I was looked after from start to finish ! Habibi tours
went out of their way to make sure I was safe and happy.
One of the highlights was sleeping under the stars in the Sahara and being woken up by a
desert fox licking my toes. Another was riding a camel to the pyramids. But what touched
my heart the most was the generousity, charm and humour of the Eyptians along the way.
They have such a sense of humour and I laughed so much !
I have travelled and been ripped off all over the world, by dodgy tour companies, but
Habibi has nothing but the customers best interests at heart and I thank them for that!
Being a massive Elvis fan, I had the crazy idea to travel Egypt dressed as my my idol. It
was my dream for the King to visit the Valley of the Kings ! You didn't bat and eyelid
when I turned up in my 100 % Polyester jumpsuit and wig.
Thanks Habibi Tours for making this possible for me.
You guys rock and I would recommend you to everyone.
Telvis (Germany)

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Popularly known as Egyptian Museum and located near the famous Tahrir Square, and on the other side of the road where I was staying (Museum View Hotel).

I arrived early in the morning in Cairo from Luxor by flight which means I'm not totally exhausted even though I woke up at 3:00am to catch the 6:30am flight to Cairo. I checked in at the hotel before 9:00am and the first sight I saw on the balcony of the room is the pink or peach building of the Egyptian Museum on the opposite side of the road. So I said, I think I'm gonna go there today, so I did.

There are people taking their pictures in the big front courtyard of the museum building. I bought a ticket, and the Entry fee is EGP60 and there's a separate Entry fee of EGP100 (!) to the Royal Mummy room on the upper floor.

Upon entering the museum, there are people (young & old) who will approach you and offer their tour guide service, this will cost you on the average EGP100 -- to have someone accompany you inside the museum and tell you the stories of the most important artefacts -- which I am not really comfortable with so I kept on saying "NO" to this one guy who approached me 3 times and one younger guy once. I just want to see the stuff, read the small info on cards on some of them, wonder at so many amazing stuff and go, until suddenly I felt so sleepy, that was like after about 2 hours or less of roaming around and reached the mummy room.

In reality, you cannot get a full grasp of the museum or see even the most important artefacts in just a day. I want to spend sometime at those really interesting artefacts but as the hours move, my eyelids are starting to drop down everytime I stare longer than 30 sec at a piece. I said, I'll be back again there the following day, then the day after, but I got busy with other places to see that I end up not coming back -- the next time I'm in Cairo I will.

BTW, it's not allowed to take pictures inside the museum, I don't know why because in other countries you can, just don't turn on your flash. So before you enter, you have to leave your bags and camera at the counter beside the ticket counter. The guy there did not mention that I should get a numbered ticket for my stuff I left there, until I realized yeah there must be, otherwise how could I claim my stuff...and remember, this is Egypt. Leave your camera or bags, but not any valuables or money there.

Am sure there are people who got away with that camera prohibitions, just that I'm just a law-abiding non-citizen. I saw it, I enjoyed it, that's it!

you need to run if you want to finish it in one day and im sure you will be able too. it carries around 20 000 monuments, statues, papyrus of the ancient time of pharos. it cost 20 dollars for entrance and 40 for mumies room.
A speciall thanks for the egyptians who stood and protected it from the mubaraks smugs......
when you go there dont miss visiting the tahrir square which was the land of war with mubarak and from where the egyptians gained their freedom from that dectator, savage mubarak.
p.s dont miss watching the most famous and the ONLY statue that was found for the king kofu, the builder of the biggest pyramid, which is 8cm long only..... dont know what to say where did that king hide his staff......... or is it really stolen , can his biggest pyramids in the world carry it!!!!!!!!!!!

Our tour of Cairo ended at the Egyptian Museum which in my opinion was interesting but quite samey.

I enjoyed looking at King Tutankhamun's gold mask and there's some really beautiful jewellery in the museum too. The mummies that were included in the admission price were also quite interesting and freaky to look at. The rest of the artifacts to me were quite 'seen one, seen them all'.

After a 4am start and traipsing around Cairo all day we tired quickly, which obviously affected our interest.

The toilets in the museum aren't too nice (take some tissues in your bag because there wasn't any when I went!).

hey just thought i'd mention that the reason the cairo museum doesn't have air conditioning in the majority of their rooms is to preserve the artifacts...apparently the recycled air can ruin them. it's definitely not for lack of money that they've only got a/c in specific areas!
glad to see that you enjoyed the rest of cairo though:)

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This museum is a treasure house of Egypt, unfortunately photography is not allowed. The treasure contains 4000-5000 yeas old Royal Jewellery , used by the Pharaos of Egypt. The designs will put any master jeweller craftsman in to shame. One wonders, how much advanced they were in those days!!

Entrance fee to the museum: L.E.60 or USD$10 , entrance to Royal Mummies hall L.E.100 or USD $20. But this museum can never be completed in one dy, leave aside in two and half hours( we were allowed only that much time). To see this museum only, I need to come back to Egypt again.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history. It houses the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, and many treasures of King Tutankhamen. The Egyptian government established the museum, built in 1835 near the Ezbekeyah Garden. The museum soon moved to Boulaq in 1858 because the original building was getting to be too small to hold all of the artifacts. In 1855, shortly after the artifacts were moved, Duke Maximilian of Austria was given all of the artifacts. He hired a French architect to design and construct a new museum for the antiquities. The new building was to be constructed on the bank of the Nile River in Boulaq. In 1878, after the museum was completed for some time, it suffered some irreversible damage; a flood of the Nile River caused the antiquities to be relocated to another museum, in Giza. The artifacts remained there until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time to the current museum in Tahrir Square.

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Your not allowed to take pictures inside but you can outside. There are Museum artifiacts to take pics of outside just outside the Egyptian building courtyard area.
There are attendants and tourist police inside.
Very crowded outside with lots of people going in and taking pics outside.