Wonderful the Egyptian Museum in tahrir.

History of the Egyptian Museum.

Muhammad Ali Pasha, Egypt’s viceroy from 1805 to 1848, is credited with the idea of establishing an Egyptian antiquities museum. In an attempt to put an end to the export of antiquities, he issued a decree on August 15, 1835, resulting in the establishment of Cairo’s first Egyptian antiquities museum. The display, housed in a building near El-Ezbekia Garden, was designed by Hakikan Effendi, while Youssef Diaa Effendi managed the collection.

At the same time, Sheikh Rifa’a al-Tahtawi, who was responsible for the excavation and conservation of Egyptian monuments, also ordered that no further excavations be undertaken without his permission. He announced that the export of artefacts from Egypt was strictly forbidden, and that all finds were to be transported to the El-Ezbekia Museum.

During Abbas I’s reign in 1851, the entire collection was moved from El-Ezbekia to one of the halls within the Citadel of Salah El-Din (Saladin), where it was only accessible to private visitors. However, in 1854, the majority of the objects were presented to Austria’s heir to the throne, Archduke Maximilian, who had expressed a strong interest in them during his visit to Egypt. They now make up a significant portion of the Egyptian collection at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

What can you see inside the museum?

Among the museum’s unrivaled collection are the complete burials of Yuya and Thuya, Psusennes I and the treasures of Tanis, and the Narmer Palette commemorating the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king, which is also among the museum’s invaluable artifacts. The museum also houses magnificent statues of the great kings Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, who built the pyramids on the Giza plateau. This uniquely expansive museum is rounded out by an extensive collection of papyri, sarcophagi, and jewelry, among other objects.

The museum is unique in that it presents the entire history of Egyptian civilization, with a focus on antiquities from the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman period. On the ground floor, there are a number of large and heavy objects, including colossal figures located within the middle atrium. The museum’s collection peaked at over 100,000 items. The majority of the artifacts, however, were never displayed due to the museum’s overcrowded and limited space.

Reliefs, sarcophagi, papyri, funerary art, tomb contents, jewelry, various ornaments, and other objects are examples of treasures. The Tanis collection, which has been compared in spectacle to Tutankhamun’s tomb, was discovered later and is less well known. It includes silver coffins, gold masks, royal sarcophagi, and jewelry. There are granite statues of Queen Hatshepsut, as well as massive statues of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) from Karnak. The museum also has a small but excellent collection of Fayum portraits from Hellenistic and Roman periods.

It contains more than 150 thousand Pharaonic artifacts

The Egyptian Museum is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East and has the largest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world.  The museum displays an extensive collection from the pre-dynastic period to the Greek and Roman periods.

Among the museum’s unparalleled collections you can see the funerary collection of Liuya and Thuya, Psusennes I, the treasures of Tanis, and the Narmer Stela which commemorates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king, and is among the priceless artifacts in the museum.  The museum also houses impressive statues of the great kings, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, the builders of the pyramids on the Giza plateau.

When did the museum items move?

In late 2010, the Egyptian government began transferring tens of thousands of museum items to the larger Grand Egyptian Museum being built in nearby Giza, including thousands of items from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Other objects transferred from the Cairo museum include a block statue of Queen Hetepheres, one of the oldest examples of its kind, and a black granite statue of Queen Nefertiti. A statue of Amenhotep II was also transferred, depicting him as the god Teni.

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