The Egyptian museum is the most defining museum of ancient Egyptian culture. It has over 120,000 items, with a representative collection on display and the remaining items in storerooms. The items in the museum range from large objects, like statues and solar boats, to smaller ones, like daily tools, coins and papyri.

The museum was built in 1902. Its design was created by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon and it was constructed by the Italian company, Garozzo-Zaffarani. Prior to this current museum, the Egyptian government had built a museum near the Ezbekieh Garden, which was later moved to the Cairo Citadel, before giving its items to the Archduke of Austria. Later, in 1858, a new museum was built in Boulaq under the direction of Auguste Mariette. The museum was moved again to a former palace in Giza in 1891, and finally it was moved for the last time to its current location in 1902.

The Egyptian museum consists of two main floors. Generally, the ground floor contains the larger pieces and the first floor contains the smaller ones. The museum follows a pattern of arranging the displayed items in a chronological order. The eras of the museum’s items include the prehistoric, early dynasties, the Old Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom, the New Kingdom and the late periods. Some of the most famous pieces in the museum are the statues of Menkaure and Khafre, the Narmer Palette, the bust of Akhenaten, a solar boat and the most famous and precious of all, King Tutankhamun’s treasure collection. The museum also has several items from the tombs of the Valley of the Kings and most of the major Egyptian kings and queens. The museum also has a special room which houses numerous royal mummies.

Outside of the museum, in an adjacent garden, lies an area that is considered as a special homage to the most famous egyptologists that have contributed to our understanding and knowledge of the ancient Egyptian civilization today. This area consists of a monument of Augustine Mariette, surrounded by 24 busts of the most prominent egyptologists, such as Jean-Francois Champollion, Ahmed Kamal, Gaston Maspero and others.