The Gayer-Anderson Museum or Bayt al-Kritliyya (House of the Cretan Woman, in Arabic) is a museum that is housed in a 17th century building of splendid architecture typical of the period’s islamic architectural style. The museum was founded largely by the efforts of Major Gayer-Anderson, a British military physician.

The museum actually consists of two buildings joined together by a bridge. The first building was built in 1540 and is known as Bayt Amna bint Salim (House of Amna Salim), after the name of the woman who was thought to be the last owner of the house. The other building, which is the larger one, was known as Bayt al-Kriliyya. This building was built in 1632 with the outer wall of the Mosque of Ibn Tulun used as support for the building. The building, at one point after its completion, came into the possession of a wealthy woman from Crete, hence its name which is House of the Cretan Woman. The two buildings were joined at an unknown date by a bridge, and they are known together today as Gayer-Anderson Museum or Bayt al-Kritliyya.

In the 1930s, the Egyptian government was demolishing the houses that were built on the walls of Ibn Tulun Mosque as they were a lot and were obscuring the mosque’s facade. However, this building was particularly well- preserved and in a much better condition than the others, so it was decided that it would be kept and further repaired to strengthen it. In 1935, Major Gayer-Anderson requested the government to live in the house and his request was granted. He was retired and had a strong fondness of collecting antiques. The government agreed of him living in the house, and he promised to furnish the house and fill it with his antiques, and upon his death or permanent leave of Egypt the house and all of its contents would return to the ownership of the Egyptian government. And indeed he did a great effort to collect precious pieces from lots of different places and made the house into what it is today.

The museum has a lot of antiques that are distributed in respective rooms. There is the Persian room, which has persian artifacts, the Muhammad Ali room, which has green and gold decorated walls and contains beautiful artistic pieces from the Rococo period, and the Damscus room, which is made entirely from wood and has a beautiful ceiling with a poem written on it, among other rooms with collections from China, the Caucasus, Asia Minor and Europe. The house’s roof has been turned into a roof garden and is also considered to rival the best of the rooms in beauty.