Cairo · Tahrir Square
Step inside the historic home of Egyptian antiquities on Tahrir Square — over 170,000 treasures spanning 5,000 years, from the Narmer Palette to the dazzling gold of Tanis. Visit with a certified Egyptologist on a Cairo tour from €45.
The most popular Cairo tours including the Egyptian Museum, ranked by traveller reviews and rating. Tap a category and the list updates instantly — no page reload.
-9% One private day across three ages of ancient Egypt: the world's first pyramid at Saqqara, the Great Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza, a…
-7% A private, unhurried day through four thousand years of Cairo — Tutankhamun's treasures, the Citadel of Saladin, and the lantern-l…
Trade the ticket line for the open desert: ride a powerful quad bike across the Giza sands with the Great Pyramids rising on the h…
-6% A private, full-day tour of four great Cairo landmarks — Saladin's Citadel, the alabaster Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Coptic Old Cairo…
-8% See the Great Pyramids of Giza and gaze upon the Great Sphinx on a half-day tour with a private guide. See the mighty landmarks fr…
-7% Explore the Egyptian Museum and Pyramids while discovering the highlights of Cairo. Feel comfortable with a female guide that is s…
-9% Take a sightseeing tour of Giza's Great Pyramids and get to know its guardian, the Sphinx, with the luxury of your own qualified E…
-8% Discover the Giza Pyramids on a private Cairo tour with an expert guide and exclusive entry inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu—one …
-9% Come face to face with the last Wonder of the Ancient World, then step inside the Grand Egyptian Museum — where Tutankhamun's comp…
-9% A camel safari to the Great Pyramids is a unique and unforgettable way to experience one of the Seven Wonders of the World. you'll…
-7% Explore Cairo's iconic Giza Pyramids, Sphinx, and the Grand Egyptian Museum. Discover ancient wonders and artifacts with our exper…
-8% Discover the Pyramids of Egypt, the Egyptian Museum, and a local market on this guided tour of the highlights of Cairo.
Opened in 1902 on the north side of Cairo's Tahrir Square, the Egyptian Museum — officially the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities — houses one of the most important collections of ancient art on Earth. More than 170,000 artifacts trace 5,000 years of civilisation across two grand floors, from prehistoric pottery to the gilded splendour of the New Kingdom.
With the Grand Egyptian Museum now open beside the Giza Pyramids, the Tutankhamun collection has moved to Giza and the Royal Mummies to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization — yet the historic Tahrir museum remains a must-see, displaying Old Kingdom masterpieces, the Narmer Palette and the Tanis royal treasures in its irreplaceable neoclassical halls.
Designed by French architect Marcel Dourgnon, the salmon-pink building is itself a landmark of early-20th-century museum design — purpose-built galleries, soaring skylights and a colonnaded façade overlooking Tahrir Square.
The museum sits in the heart of the city, a short walk from the Nile Corniche and directly above Sadat Metro Station — making it easy to combine with the Pyramids, Islamic Cairo or a Nile dinner cruise in a single day.
Even after the Tutankhamun galleries moved to Giza, the Tahrir museum keeps some of the most celebrated objects in all of Egyptology.
The ground-floor halls hold the founding works of Egyptian art: the diorite Statue of King Khafre protected by the falcon Horus, the strikingly lifelike Seated Scribe, and the wooden Ka-Aper known as Sheikh el-Balad.
Often overlooked beside Tutankhamun, the silver-and-gold treasures of Tanis are among the museum's greatest highlights — including the gold funerary masks of Pharaohs Psusennes I and Amenemope and exquisite royal jewellery.
The 5,000-year-old Narmer Palette — recording the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt — is one of the single most important artifacts in human history and remains a centrepiece of the Tahrir collection.
A closer look at the objects most visitors come to see. Click each item for details.
Carved from a single piece of siltstone, the Narmer Palette depicts King Narmer wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt and is widely read as a record of the unification of the two lands — effectively the founding document of the Egyptian state and one of the earliest historical records on Earth.
Sculpted in hard, gleaming diorite, this seated statue of the pyramid-builder Khafre shows the falcon-god Horus embracing the back of the king's head — a masterful expression of divine kingship and one of the supreme achievements of Old Kingdom sculpture.
With inlaid rock-crystal eyes and a remarkably naturalistic body, the Seated Scribe captures an official poised to write. Its lifelike intimacy makes it one of the most beloved works in the museum and a benchmark of Old Kingdom realism.
Carved from sycamore wood, this rounded, full-figured official so resembled a local village chief that the workmen who found it named it "Sheikh el-Balad" (headman of the village). Its warm humanity is a striking contrast to the formal stone statuary nearby.
Discovered intact in the 1930s in the Delta city of Tanis, these Third Intermediate Period royal burials yielded solid-gold masks, silver coffins and dazzling jewellery. The gold mask of Psusennes I rivals Tutankhamun's — yet draws far smaller crowds.
The near-complete tomb of Yuya and Thuya — great-grandparents of Tutankhamun — was one of the best-preserved finds before his tomb. Their gilded coffins, masks and furniture give an extraordinary picture of high-status burial in the 18th Dynasty.
Everything you need to plan your visit to the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square.
Tahrir Square, Downtown Cairo, Egypt. View on Google Maps · GPS 30.0478, 31.2336.
From a riverside storehouse of antiquities to a world landmark — and a new chapter alongside the Grand Egyptian Museum.
To stem the looting of antiquities, Egypt founded its first national collection in 1835. Under Auguste Mariette the holdings grew and moved several times — including to a building in Boulaq and a palace in Giza — before a permanent home was planned.
The purpose-built neoclassical museum on Tahrir Square opened in 1902. For over a century it was the world's foremost home of Pharaonic art, welcoming millions of visitors to its Tutankhamun and Old Kingdom galleries.
With the Grand Egyptian Museum opening at Giza in November 2025, the Tutankhamun collection moved there and the Royal Mummies to the NMEC. The Tahrir museum is now being renovated and refocused on rich thematic exhibitions of its 170,000+ artifacts.
Everything travellers ask about visiting the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Our team is happy to help — reach out via WhatsApp, email, or call +20 101 195 7868.
Book a guided Cairo tour with skip-the-line entry and hotel pickup — from museum highlights to a full day pairing the Pyramids of Giza with Tahrir Square. Cairo tours from €45 per person.
