The museum is in a site of 10,000 sq mtr with the exhibits in a second floor gallery. The ground floor is an extensive car park, shopping mall (with upmarket shops and cafeteria) leading to the museum gallery which you access via a lift. Thus the museum follows the theme of many Egyptian historical sites in forcing you to run the gauntlet of a shopping “experience” before seeing what you came to see!
Having said that, we’re talking about upmarket clothes shops, art gallery etc rather than tacky souvenir stalls with over enthusiastic vendors
I felt a little sad for the proprietors as, for our 2 hour visit, we were the only people there. They obligingly switched on their lights as we sauntered past....ignoring them. The staff...which outnumbered us 5 to 1...were pleasant enough although few spoke any English. After you’ve wandered through the exhibits...following a distancing track on floor....you’re faced with a difficult marble staircase back to the ground floor. Or have to retrace your tracks to the lift by which you entered.
A design flaw I tried to point out to the staff...only to be met with blank faces and shrugs. Note to self...must work on my Arabic!
The exhibits are well lit in the gallery which was absolutely freezing
Great place to cool off in the summer. The exhibits are from all periods of Egyptian history....Old Kingdom through to Islamic and era of Mohamed Ali. Some impressive jewellery left behind (ahem) when Farouk and the royal family fled.Some of the New Kingdom description cards need correcting ( as I pointed out to a less than pleased attendant!) and they need to be larger...but, nevertheless, a huge improvement on anything you’ll see in the old Cairo museum.
The artefacts will be changed regularly (well..that’s the idea...we’ll see)
200le for foreigners....worth it in my view.
