Twelve collections · Cairo to Aswan
Egypt keeps its past in a dozen public museums, from a new building at the foot of the Giza pyramids to a single ochre villa above the Nile cataract. This guide tells you what is in each one, what entry costs, and how long to give it — then books your slot.
Start here
If you have two days in Cairo and no more, these are the three. Between them they cover the pharaonic collection, the founding museum itself, and the long view from prehistory to the present day.
The largest museum in the world devoted to a single civilisation, two kilometres from the pyramids. Its grand staircase climbs past sixty colossal statues to a window framing Khufu's pyramid, and the complete Tutankhamun collection is on show together for the first time since 1922.
The original. Marcel Dourgnon's pink neoclassical hall has been the home of Egyptian antiquities for over a century, and it still feels like a nineteenth-century collection: crowded cases, handwritten labels, wonderful things in unexpected corners.
A thematic museum that runs from the Palaeolithic to the present, built beside the Ain el-Sira lake. Downstairs, in a deliberately darkened hall, twenty-two royal mummies lie in individual cases — the quietest room in Cairo.
Tickets
Pick a museum, a date and an entry window. Add reduced-rate tickets for students and children, add an audio guide if you want one, and the ticket is issued to your email as a QR code. Show it on your phone at the turnstile — there is nothing to print and nothing to collect.
By region
Egypt's museums follow the Nile. Half of them sit within an hour of central Cairo; the rest are strung along the river to Aswan, with two on the Mediterranean and one on the Red Sea.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, the Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Coptic Museum and the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara.
Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum face each other across the corniche; the Nubian Museum in Aswan holds what was rescued before Lake Nasser rose.
Alexandria holds the National Museum and the Royal Jewellery Museum in a former palace; Sharm El Sheikh's museum opened in 2020 for Red Sea visitors.
Before you go
Yes. The headline pharaonic material has moved to Giza, but Tahrir keeps thousands of objects and the building itself is part of the history of Egyptology. It is also far quieter than it used to be, which is not a small thing.
In the Royal Mummies Hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat. They were moved there in April 2021 in a televised procession through Cairo. Photography is not allowed in that hall.
Rules vary by museum and change often. Phone photography without flash is generally fine; cameras with detachable lenses usually need a permit, which you can add to your booking. Tripods and drones are not allowed anywhere.
Prices on this site are indicative gate prices for international visitors in Egyptian pounds, and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities revises them periodically. Egyptian nationals and residents pay considerably less at the museum's own counter.
Friday midday and public holidays are busiest. Ramadan brings shortened hours at most state museums, and a few close on major religious holidays — check the museum's page before you travel.
Next step
Entry windows fill first thing in the morning and just after opening on weekends. Booking ahead costs nothing extra and saves the queue at the counter.
