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Tahrir Square is home to the greatest collection of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in the world. Though the Egyptian Museum is showing its age, a visit here remains one of the highlights of a trip to Egypt. It also serves as an ideal introduction to Ancient Egypt.

Tackling the museum
Since the museum contains more than a quarter of a million objects spanning over three millennia from the Old Kingdom to the Roman period, it would take at least nine months to see everything, and only if allowing a minute or less at each exhibit. That calculation doesn’t include the vast number of artefacts languishing in the museum’s basement. Some of the larger statues have reputedly sunk through the floor, earning the museum the ironic title of ‘Egypt’s last major excavation’. Cataloguing is now, however, under way.
The ground floor is generally arranged chronologically (clockwise from the entrance hall), while exhibits on the first floor are grouped thematically. Tutankhamun’s famous rooms are located on the first floor, as are the royal mummies and jewellery rooms. For more on Tutankhamun’s treasures, read here.
The museum is ideally visited twice: once with a guide to point out the highlights (all contained in the main halls), and a second time alone wandering some of the side rooms, which give fascinating glimpses into the daily lives of the Ancient Egyptians. If you don’t want a guide (LE50 per hour is the official rate; guiding standards are variable), it’s easy to spot the highlights from the crowds of people around them.