Egyptian Museum Full Guide

If you are wondering which Cairo museum to visit you are not alone. The confounding choices between the Grand Egyptian Museum, and its older predecessor at Tahrir Square are understandable. The short answer is visit both! The long answer is read on. The museum at Tahrir Square is the historic, iconic pink-coloured building that originally housed all the Egyptian treasures. Over the past few years, some of these have been transferred to the newer Grand Egyptian Museum to reduce overcrowding. Today, both museums enjoy good footfall as well as positive visitor experiences. If your agenda is only to visit the treasures of King Tut your destination is the newer museum. However, if you are thinking 'Surely there's nothing left in the Egyptian Museum after you've seen King Tut?', you are wrong! The 9 years of Tut’s reign and 19 years of his life are just a tiny fraction of the three-thousand-year-long history of Egypt. If you leave without seeing the outstanding museum at Tahrir Square, you are walking away from more than 99 per cent of Egyptian history. But if you visit the awesome museum then you will only walk away with the memory of an unforgettable experience. We assure you that you will have no regrets about visiting this massive, legendary, iconic pink building in the heart of Cairo that is home to millions of Egyptian artefacts, and King Tut's artefacts which were originally housed here are no more trust us when we say they were a mere drop in the ocean! As you walk through the galleries, you are not just walking through a building; you are walking through Egypt itself. From the beliefs of predynastic kings who buried themselves in the proximity of the mythical tomb of Osiris in Abydos, we move on to the splendour of the Old Kingdom kings who were the great builders of the Giza Pyramids and sought union with the sun god. By the Middle Kingdom, however, beliefs in the afterlife changed again and it was now popular to have underground mortuary complexes tunnelled into the heartland of the Theban mountains! By the New Kingdom, these beliefs changed yet again with systematic tombs quarried into the Theban hills under a pyramid-shaped mountain called the Qurn which was infested with snakes that were thought to play a role in transporting the soul to the afterlife. So don’t miss a rare chance to walk into a time capsule that has various snapshots of Egyptian history under one roof! You can see the iconic catfish that spells out the name of one of the first kings of Egypt, King Narmer in his oversized cosmetic palette. You can be awed at the statues that were placed in the long tunnels that were dug in the Theban hills to create sanctuaries close to Osiris. You can wonder at the time when a strange king named Akhenaten and his beautiful queen, Nefertiti, pioneered new artistic and religious movements that, despite their short lifespan, had an everlasting impact. You can imagine the time when tombs glittered with gold and shone with silver in the Valley of the Kings. You can also see the time when priests became powerful and systematically looted their kings' tombs, throwing Egypt into chaos. Finally, you can see the time when Egypt became weak and came under foreign influence- but even at this state instead of westernising the Egyptians, Greek and Roman rulers remained so fascinated that they bent backwards to embrace Egyptian culture in order to gain the acceptance of the Egyptian people. You however do not need to bend backwards but only need to download the app to embrace outstanding narratives and snapshots of Egyptian history in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! It's time now to download the app and book your tickets to the most iconic destination in Cairo!