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Cairo
CAIRO MUSEUMS Egyptian Museum of Antiquities:
The Egyptian Museum of antiquities in Cairo offers a rare and priceless collection of ancient Egyptian arts and artifacts that spans a period of 5000 years. It will need days to explore the treasures displayed in the museum. This collection was first assembled by the French archeologist Auguste Mariette in 1858. The famous galleries exhibited there is the Tutankamun gallery with its exquisite treasures from the boy king tomb, including the famous death mask. Another top attraction is the mummies hall which displays 11 royal mummies of the most powerful pharaohs including Seti I and his son Ramses II.
Coptic Museum :
The Coptic Museum lying behind the Babylon fort and forming with the surrounding monuments an open air museum that depicts the history of Coptic Egypt. The museum was founded by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910. The museum exhibits the largest and most significant collection of Coptic art in the world with 16,000 piece on display. The exquisite Coptic textiles, carved ivories, papyri (ancient paper) with text from the Gnostic gospels of Nag Hammadi, and Nubian paintings from the flooded villages of Lake Nassar. The ornate rooms are decorated with beautiful mashrabiyya (carved wood) screens, fountains and painted ceilings.
Islamic Art Museum :
The idea of establishing the Islamic Art Museum started in 1862 with a collection of Islamic antiquities in the Mosque of Al Hakim. It was prior the establishment of the Committee of Arab Antiquities. The museum houses one of the finest and largest collection of Islamic Art that depict the Islamic history of Egypt from the seventh to the 19th century. It displays a rare collection of woodwork, plaster, metal ,ceramic, glass, textile and textiles. The museum carries excavations in Fustat area and organizes many international museums.
Mahmoud Khalil Museum :
A refurbished mansion of a prewar politician Mahmoud Khalil and his wife that displays a fine Art collection mainly European collected by Mahmoud Khalili. The works displayed are those by Monet, Gaugin, Pissarro and Van Gogh. It contains the famous sun flower picture of Van Gogh.
Agriculture Museum :
The palace of Princess Fatma, daughter of Khedive Ismail, was chosen to house the museum in November, 1930. The Ministry of Agriculture made a lot of changes in the palace to make it suitable as the museum which was first opened on 16 January 1938 and was the first museum of its kind in the world.
The museum is located in the well-known area of Dokki in Cairo. One can spend an hour walking around its walls.
The museum contains ten halls or what might be considered subsidiary museums. Some of them are open for visitors, while others are closed for maintenance, and still others are under construction or not ready to be opened yet. One of the most interesting halls is the New Museum of Ancient Egyptian Agriculture and the Museum of Acquisitions. Unfortunately these halls are not opened yet.
Another of the most fascinating halls is the museum of bread. It includes information about bread in Egypt since ancient times. It contains old, interesting pictures of different agriculture aspects such as pictures of peasants, waterfalls, and agriculture tools. All kinds of bread that Egyptians eat from different regions are displayed in the main hall of the museum. The most popular Egyptian pastry (the Meshaltet patty) is also displayed there. Maps and statistics that show the development of bread are also on display.
The second hall of this museum contains a display of different gadgets used in the baking of bread. A cleaning machine, used to filter the wheat and wash it before baking it is on display. Then, there is a display of various kinds of baking ovens both old and modern. There are small models of workers baking bread as well, and all kinds of Egyptian wheat are displayed in this museum. Obviously, bread has played an important role in Egyptian life from ancient times until present.
The Museum of Plant Wealth contains all kinds of field and orchard items. It consists of two sections. The first one is field crops, which include samples of grain crops, oil-producing crops, leguminous crops, sugar crops and fiber crops with an emphasis on the most up-to-date scientific methods of increasing productivity.
Manial Palace Museum:
A more accurate and realistic impression of palace life in the 19th Century Egypt can, however, be gained by visiting the Manial Palace Museum on the island of Roda. Originally the residence of Prince Mohamed Ali (1875-1954), his son Khedive Tewfik, and mostly built between 1901 and 1929.
Abdeen Palace Museum Complex :
Named Abdeen Bey one of the army commanders during Mohamed Ali reign. Khedieve Ismail ordered the bulding of Abdeen palace to be the seat of the Egyptian government instead of Salah El Din Citadel. The palace remained the seat of the government from 1872-1952. The Abdeen Palace stood as a witness for remarkable political and historic events that affected Egypt’s contemporary history.
The complex features a military museum of all arms presented as gifts to President Mubarak on different occasions, a museum of ancient weapons and a third of the medals and orders of merit bestowed on members of Egypt’s formal royal family and eminent Egyptian figures.
Police Museum :
It exhibits odd items devoted to assassins. Beyond the Museum you can have a panoramid view of the city of Cairo and you can see the ruins of the Palace of Al Nasir and Qasr El Ablaq.
Military Museum :
The Northern Enclosure of the Citadel includes the Military Museum, which is located inside Mohamed Ali's Harim Palace, and covers military history from Pharaonic times to the present.
Carriage Museum :
The Carriage Museum has a small collection of horse-drawn carriages. Just beyond, the Stolen Things Museum contains antiquities recovered from smugglers before they left Egypt. An outdoor garden exhibits larger antiquities from around Egypt.
LIST OF ALL MUSEUMS IN CAIRO :
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