Egyptian Museum, Tahrir
The original 1902 museum — still holding 120,000 objects in glorious old-fashioned density.
About
With the headline pieces moved to the GEM and the NMEC, the Tahrir museum has become something better: a working nineteenth-century collection where objects are stacked in wooden cases with handwritten labels, and you can stand alone in front of things that would headline any other museum on earth.
The Amarna gallery, the Yuya and Thuya tomb group, the Middle Kingdom models and the Fayoum mummy portraits are all still here.
History
Designed by Marcel Dourgnon and opened in 1902, it was the first purpose-built museum in the Middle East. Auguste Mariette, who founded the Egyptian Antiquities Service, is buried in the garden.
