Visiting the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: Treasures and Troubles

travelertina

02:04:38 April 16, 2024

Africa,Egypt

Here we have the grande dame of Egyptian museums, Cairo’s aptly-named Egyptian Museum.

Exterior of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, with neoclassical architecture, a fountain with two sphinx statues, and a grand arched entrance under a clear blue sky

A Grand Museum in the Heart of the Capital

Built in 1901 under the direction of a French Egyptologist, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is currently the largest museum in Africa (it will soon be surpassed by the Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, in Giza, but that space is still under construction). The Egyptian Museum boasts a large and impressive collection of antiquities, including many treasures from the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, dozens of sarcophagi and coffins, and everything from mummy masks to scrolls of the dead.

Detail of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus featuring hieroglyphics, decorative elements, and painted figures of Anubis and Horus, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo — Coffin Detail

The Treasures of King Tutankhamun

One of the most notable collections at the moment is the treasure of King Tut, more properly known as Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Three alabaster canopic jars of King Tutankhamun inside an inscribed alabaster box with hieroglyphics, displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. — King Tut’s Canoptc Jars

Relics of Royalty: Gold and Grandeur

While the bling of King Tut is a major draw, you can see so many more fantastic things here. You’ll find the glittering remains of other rulers …

Mummy mask of Tjuyu (Thuya) made of cartonnage with gold foil, inlaid with turquoise and other precious stones, displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt — Cartonnage mask of Thuya

… jewelry trailing with precious stones …

Ancient Egyptian jewelry featuring a gold falcon head, likely representing Horus, atop rows of gold, carnelian, and turquoise or feldspar beads, Egyptian Museum Cairo.

… and larger than life statues that remind you just how powerful the pharaohs really were. Among many others, you can stand in awe of Amenthotep IV …

Colossal sandstone statue of Amenhotep IV from East Karnak, the New Kingdom, missing headpiece, holding heka and nekhakha scepters (crook and flail), ancient Egyptian artifact, Egyptian Museum Cairo.

… King Djoser …

… and Ramses II, shown here under the protective wings of Horus, the falcon-headed god of the sky.

Granite statue from the New Kingdom at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, showing King Ramesses II as a child seated before the Canaanite sun god Hauron, depicted in the form of a hawk.

Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt

Much of what we know about the ancient Egyptians revolves around their views on death — specifically, that it was simply another world into which the pharaohs would be transported with all their worldly goods. Powerful persons were buried with everything from boats to row them to the afterlife …

A wooden ancient Egyptian model boat with eight human figures, including a rowing crew, passengers, and a central figure lying on a platform under a canopy, at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

… to cows and herdsmen to fill their fields once they’d arrived.

A display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo features ancient Egyptian figurines of herders guiding spotted, horned cattle, both black and white and brown and white

The Egyptian Museum is filled with relics related to the afterworld. You’ll find papyrus Scrolls of the Dead …

Papyrus segment at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt, featuring hieroglyphs, an image of Medjed, the guardian of Osiris, and a bird-headed underworld cavern deity from the Book of the Dead.

… canopic jars for storing the viscera (liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines) of the dead …

An ancient Egyptian canopic jar made of brown alabaster, featuring carved hieroglyphs and a lid shaped like a baboon's head, set against a beige background, at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

… and even dummy canopic jars, used once embalming techniques evolved to allow those preparing the body to keep the viscera inside the body.

Set of four small white jars resembling canopic jars with frog, bull's head, and wild goat lids, from the tomb of Yuya and Thuya, ancient Egyptian artifact, Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Coffins at the Egyptian Museum: Art for the Afterlife

Another highlight is, of course, the museum’s collection of elaborately painted and bejeweled coffins, all of which once held carefully prepared and wrapped mummies.

Close-up of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, a detail from Akhenaten’s coffin, decorated with colorful blue, gold, and red chevron patterns and a vertical column of hieroglyphics on a gold background in the center at the Egyptian Museum Cairo — Detail from Akhenaten’s coffin

To look into the coffins is to stare into a world of magnificent artistic detail.

The inside of an ancient Egyptian coffin decorated with colorful, intricate paintings of a green human figure in elaborate dress, surrounded by hieroglyphics, symbols, and stylized depictions of gods and protective spirits at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Elaborately decorated ancient Egyptian coffin with painted motifs of falcons, vultures, lions, snakes, baboons, and seated human figures, Egyptian Museum Cairo.

Objects of Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt

Of course, not everything in ancient Egypt was about power and glory — that’s just what we have left after centuries have wiped so much of history into the dust. But we can still see the games that people played …

Ancient Egyptian Senet board game with brown grid board, white, brown, and blue game pieces in various shapes, Egyptian Museum, Cairo

… including the dice they rolled …

Ancient Egyptian dice in various shapes and colors, historical gaming artifacts, Egyptian Museum Cair

… the tools with which they did carpentry …

Traditional Egyptian plumb bob with triangular wooden frame and hanging weight from string, ancient measuring tool, Egyptian Museum Cairo

… and the glass that would have graced their bedrooms and dining tables.

A translucent ancient Egyptian glass vase with a rounded body, flared rim, and light green decorative trails looping from the rim down the sides, on display at the Egyptian Museum Cairo.

A translucent, greenish glass bottle from Ancient Egypt with a wide flared rim, a long narrow neck, decorative glass ring accents near the base of the neck, and a round body, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

As far as we know, the Egyptians were among the first glassmakers in the world, and it’s remarkable to see what they were able to create (and even more remarkable, perhaps, that so much of it has survived).

Masters of Stone, Sand, and the Paintbrush

When you look at the pieces in the Egyptian Museum, what really stands out is the craftsmanship. You’ll see attention to detail in everything from the tiniest statues …

Small turquoise-glazed faience sculpture of a seated dog, with its paws resting on a base, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

Small standing eagle figurine with outstretched wings, ancient Egyptian artifact, Egyptian Museum Cairo

… to this large painted sandstone chapel.

Painted sandstone chapel with hieroglyphics and image of King Thutmose III making offering to Amun-Ra, ancient Egyptian artifact, Egyptian Museum Cairo

You could while away many minutes just admiring the fresco paintings from the Tell el-Amarna Palace, with their naturalistic flowers and birds …

A fresco from Tell el-Amarna Palace depicts a bird in flight among tall grasses and lotus plants with green leaves, set against a faded, cracked background, framed with wood. Now housed in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

… or the complexity of stelae like the golden Buchis-stela of Ptolemy V.

Round-topped Buchis stela of Ptolemy V from the Ptolemaic Period, carved in limestone with gold and pigments, featuring hieroglyphs and an image of the sacred bull, at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt

And the hieroglyphs … they’re everywhere, and you couldn’t ask for a better place to study them up close (I should note that I’m such a huge fan of Egyptian hieroglyphics that I’ve written a whole separate post about them).

Detailed ancient Egyptian relief carving of hieroglyphs featuring birds, a bee, an ankh, snakes, and a scarab beetle, Egyptian Museum Cairo

A Glorious Mess: Troubles at the Museum

Given all of this amazing stuff, what’s not to love? Well, the Egyptian Museum faces three main challenges.

Curatorial Chaos

The Egyptian Museum is an old-fashioned mess, a jumble of too many things on display without any notion of careful curation. Just take a look behind the cat statue below, and you’ll see shelves jammed chock-a-block full of tiny statues.

Seated statue of a cat, ancient Egyptian artifact, with blurred background of shelves filled with rows of small statues of humans and animals, Egyptian Museum Cairo.

It’s impossible to know where to look or how to understand what you’re seeing. Some things are labeled, some aren’t, and lots of stuff is crammed together. That said, while some people get frustrated at trying to make sense of it all, I find this kind of curatorial mess rather endearing.

Dusty Shelves

Folks aren’t taking care of the joint. The Egyptian Museum is poorly climate controlled, out of date, and dusty.

Dusty turquoise faience amulet of Bes, ancient Egyptian protective deity, on display at the Egyptian Museum Cairo

I can’t help but think that this little statue of Bes is angry because no one has been taking care of him. I wanted to attack the whole place with a dust cloth and then find someone to put everything into temperature- and lighting-controlled display cases. Even the museum’s signage often looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

Vintage hand-lettered trilingual warning sign in Egyptian Arabic, French, and English reading 'It is strictly forbidden to touch the antiquities or the cases or to lean against them,' at the Egyptian Museum Cairo

Where are the Mummies (and King Tut)?

Some of the highlights are being sent elsewhere. Rather than shore up this beautiful historical space, the Supreme Council of Culture (yes, that’s a real thing) has been moving treasures into new museums. In 2021, over 20 mummies were moved to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and the Egyptian Museum is now nearly mummy-free (though the room of animal mummies still exists).

Sacred ram coffin from ancient Egypt with golden ram’s head wearing a crown with a solar disk, on display at the Egyptian Museum Cairo — Sacred ram coffin

And while King Tut’s treasures are currently a highlight of the Egyptian Museum, the whole kit and caboodle is slated to be shuttled off to the Grand Egyptian Museum whenever it’s finally completed.

utankhamun’s folding chair with leopard-skin painted seat, duck-head shaped legs, and colorful gold-painted back with hieroglyphs, ancient Egyptian artifact, Egyptian Museum Cairo — Tutankhamun’s Folding Chair

Will the Egyptian Museum still be left with an amazing collection? Absolutely. But it still seems a shame that a historical icon is losing some of its best pieces.

Is the Egyptian Museum Still Worth Visiting?

Yes — and for all my concerns, I love this place. It’s a mess, yes, but it’s a glorious mess that still has some of the shine of yesteryear. In fact, we enjoyed it so much on our first day that we asked to go back the very next day to see more of the rooms. So if you’re planning to spend time in Egypt, I would recommend allocating at least three to four hours to the Egyptian Museum. If you have a tour guide, they’ll probably give you two hours max, but that won’t be enough. Take your time, and you won’t be disappointed!

Planning a trip to Egypt? Here’s the perfect 2-week itinerary.

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