The Egyptian Museum Cairo

We’ve taken our kids to the best and most famous museums in the world, London, New York, Washington DC and a hundred smaller storehouses of knowledge, but nothing could ever beat Cairo’s spectacular Old Egyptian Museum. This is my favourite museum in the world, a dusty slice of yesteryear and for us, The Egyptian Museum Cairo was the greatest treasure house on Earth, we’re very excited to see the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) at Giza. Just as soon as it opens. But this post is about the old museum, The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities.

What of visiting the Egyptian Museum Cairo, what’s it like, is it accessible, is it still amazing, how is security and how did we arrange it?

You will need a guide at this museum to find the treasures, you can easily book one here. We were able to find a guide via our guest house owner, along with a private driver. We were in Cairo for a long time, if you only have a short time, book. It’s a very good idea to combine this tour with a day seeing The Citadel and Old Cairo. That way you only have to do battle with Cairo’s traffic once. Book that tour here.

We haven’t been to this museum in a few years. Some treasures have moved to the new GEM. Check the tour details above to see if you think it’s still worth going.

Chef and I visited Egypt almost 20 years ago and memories of our day at the museum are still vivid for both of us but now it’s the kids’ turn.

On that day at the museum, we were still strangers, a few days later we had met, our lives were entwined and we were on our way to being the family we are today, but that’s another story.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo

They had so many treasures here they didn’t know what to do with them.

The vast 100 year-old building and grounds are overflowing with artefacts and they’re all fascinating. Egypt’s latest discovery, a 9m statue of King Psammetich was unearthed in a Cairo suburb just days before was already in residence at the front of the museum.

This civilisation and culture was vast, its extent was mind-blowing and new artefacts are constantly being discovered.

The big draw here, of course, were the items from the tomb of Tut Ankh Amoun. The boy king died age just 19 and was buried with incomprehensible amounts of treasure, most of which were on display.

Think for a minute what items must have been lost to robbers from the other, greater Egyptian rulers. Ramses the Great (Ramses II) was 91 when he died, what must have been in his tomb?

You may see his solid gold mask, decorated with turquoise, lapis and coral, also his gold mummy belt, cases and jewellery.

These priceless items were in a separate room of the old museum and no photography was allowed. You’ll just have to trust me that they take your breath away, or take a look at the video below, it’s for kids, but most of us could use a refresher.

Update: King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, seeing his body, removed from his coffin, was a bit too much for us. He was just a boy and you could see that, you can’t help but feel sad for this king who was married to his sister at just 10 years old and died 9 years later.

This exhibition sometimes goes on global tour, so check if it’s in residence at the time you visit. It could now be at the GEM. We’ll be visiting King Tutankhamun’s Tomb in the Valley of the Kings and nearby, Howard Carter’s House in coming days. This is how we do ” school” and it’s so good!

Do You Need a Guide For the Egyptian Museum?

Our feeling is yes, you do need a guide. This museum is everything a modern museum in the west isn’t, other than huge.

It’s vast and you could easily spend a whole day here and not come close to seeing everything.

Labelling of the exhibits isn’t so great and there is a general lack of signposting and maps.  To find the museum’s most incredible treasures, and often they aren’t the most spectacular, you need a guide.

We were with a guide for both of our visits, with a small group holiday almost 20 years ago, and today as a family, both times our guides were invaluable, if, sometimes, a little less than factually accurate.

Smaller, less flashy items like the 2 above are some of the museum’s best treasures and almost impossible to find without a guide.

You can pick up a guide at the museum, we were told it costs 200LE, Our guide came with us from our hotel in Giza and also showed us around the Cairo Citadel for 300LE, roughly $15.

Admission Costs Cairo’s Egyptian Museum

We’re finding all prices in Egypt to be good and there are always child discounts even for my big kids. Usually, the child price is actually the student price, which is great to see. These were the prices when we visited, check they may have risen.

Admission Price Adults: 80LE Approx $4.50

Admission Price Kids / Students 40LE Approx $2.25

There was an extra admission fee for the Royal Mummies exhibition, 100LE but there was now no extra charge for the King Tutankhamun exhibition.

How Long to Allow for Your Visit?

You could spend days here, like most museums, but allow 2-3 hours.

Is The Egyptian Museum Good for Kids?

Superb! Of course. But toddlers and preschoolers may get bored particularly if you take a tour aimed at adults.

How We Arranged Visiting the Egyptian Museum

We were visiting from our guest house and Cairo home in the shadow of the pyramids at Giza. We would highly recommend staying there, it’s been superb, but it puts the Cairo Museum about an hour away by car depending on traffic.

We visited by taxi, picking up our guide near our hotel and returning with him, several hours later. He also took us to the Cairo Citadel, built by Saladin in the time of the Ottomans and inside that the magnificent Muhammed Ali Mosque.

The Citadel perches on a hill overlooking Cairo, these hills were the quarries and source of the stones of Giza. In the times of Nile floods, tonnes of stone were floated from here to the pyramid construction sites on the other side of the Nile.

I’m getting carried away with my Egyptian history, this post is supposed to be only about visiting the Cairo museum, the Citadel will have to have its own post soon.

We’re absolutely loving our time in Egypt, it’s been incredible so far and there is much, much more to come as we head south to Upper Egypt for Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel. Stay connected, don’t miss a thing by signing up for our newsletter. We can all get an education together.

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