Egypt has many museums scattered throughout the country. On this web
site is information about three major ones in Cairo, Luxor and Aswan.
Click on the bold text titles of each museum to go to their own pages.
The current Egyptian Museum building in Cairo (at right) opened in
1902 and is filled with more than 100,000 antiquities from thousands of
years of Egyptian history.
A new museum is to be built close to the pyramids of Giza on the
outskirts of Cairo, although the existing building in central Cairo
will remain home to a selection of about 10,000 items.
Many of the items are still in display cases dating from the early
20th century and many have no labels. Still, for those with an interest
in Predynastic, Pharaonic, Graeco-Roman or Coptic items there is no
place to compare with the range of pieces on show. And, of course,
there are the wonders from Tutankhamun's tomb - this is the place to
come for anyone interested in seeing many of the beautiful items
conserved by Howard Carter's team over the course of a decade from late
1922.
In 1975, the Egyptians opened a new museum on the corniche in
Luxor (at left). With its modern display techniques, the museum
highlights a selection of exquisite items from the area, including some
from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
One of the significant displays is part of a wall reassembled from
blocks from Akhenaten's dismantled temple at Karnak.
If you have time, it is well worth visiting the museum. Check the
visiting hours when there, but evening is a nice time to visit, leaving
you to do outdoor sites in the day. Or, if the weather is hot, then a
day visit could be a relief.
Luxor also has a Mummification Museum which opened in 1997.
Opened in late 1997, the Nubian Museum (at right) was
long-awaited and it exhibits
many items from ancient Nubia, much of it submerged in the 1960s by the
building of the Aswan High Dam south of Aswan.
The museum is located on a hill overlooking Aswan and has nicely
landscaped gardens utilising the local granite. If you have
at least a couple of hours spare, it is well worth a visit to give an
appreciation of the area south of the well-known regions of Egypt.
Dioramas of modern Nubians in their homes are a special feature.
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Copyright © 2006 Mark T. Rigby
