The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities
The Egyptian Museum features artifacts from the Pharaonic period. The museum displays a rare collection of 5000 years of art which is considered the largest most precious collection of Egyptian art in the world. Over 250,000 artifacts are presented, including an exhibit dedicated to Tutankhamen collection of treasure, gold and jewelry which was enclosed in his tomb for over 3,500 years
Egyptian Museum address is:Tahrir Square at Downtown, Cairo. Egyptians refer to Downtown as Wust al-Balad, or in other words “The heart of the city”. The reason of calling it so is because the Downtown area is the part of the city that is full of life and activities. Cairo is sometimes called “the city that never sleeps” of Egypt, and so for Downtown. It is not only the heart of Cairo, but also the center for every life activity and facility, and the hub for different cultures. Downtown is famous for Midan Talaat Harb and Midan Tahrir.
The Egyptian museum in Cairo houses over 120,000 artifacts, including the contents of Tutankhamen’s tomb and most of the mummies that have been discovered since the 19th century. The museum’s exhibits span from the beginning of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (approximately 2700 BC) through the Greco-Roman period.The building consists of two floors. On the ground floor, you can follow the history of Egypt from the Old Kingdom up through the Greco-Roman period by turning left at the entrance and looping around the museum. This provides a good background for most of Egypt’s ancient history.
Upstairs the museum is organized thematically with a large portion of the area taken up the exhibit of the contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb, including his famous funerary mask. Also upstairs is the room dedicated to the beautiful jewelry discovered in the Royal Tombs of Tanis. Another highlight of the museum, the Royal Mummy Room, requires the purchase of a separate ticket. Inside you can see the mummies of some of Egypt’s most famous pharaohs, including Ramesses II, Seti I, and Egypt’s only queen, Hatshepsut.
The museum has so much to offer that it can be overwhelming. It suffers from the fact that much of the contents have not been relabeled or reorganized since they were first arranged in their cases over a century ago. The result is that some sections provide very little context for the artifacts and labels are shown in a variety of languages- French, English, Greek, German, and Arabic. The difficulty of navigating the exhibits is a common complaint by visitors and a good reason to have a guide with you.
The Egyptian museum, also known as the museum of ancient Egyptian civilization, houses some of the world’s most important collections of ancient artifacts. Inside the walls of that great and old pinkish building located in Downtown Maidan Al-Tahrir, the priceless treasures of King Tutankhamun and some other ancient Egyptian greatest pharaohs, along with the belongings, mummies, jewellery, and food bowls of Ancient Egyptians that were buried with the kings to use in the afterlife as believed by the ancient Egyptians.
