Museums

Royal Jewelry Museum reflects how rich the family of Muhammad Ali Pasha and their extravagant living. This family ruled Egypt for 150 years, from 1805 to the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, from Muhammad Ali Pasha until Faruq I.

The history of Royal Jewelry Museum This building was the former palace owned by Princess Fatma El Zahraa, the granddaughter of the brother of Khedive Ismail and one of the descendants of Mohamed Ali Pasha. It was built in 1919 at 27 Ahmed Yahya Basha Street – Zezenia – Alexandria Governorate.

The palace is turned to be a museum in 1986. It is divided into ten halls displaying more than 11 thousand precious objects like gifts, pieces of jewelry owned by the royal family.

The design of this building The design of the building merges between the European and Islamic styles. Also, it distinguishes by the oil paintings, gilded and hand-painted ceilings, and glass panels drawn with scenes of Greek mythology that decorate many rooms of the palace.

The collection of the museum The museum displays possessions owned by members of family of Muhammad Ali Pasha.

The masterpieces in the museum

• • A diamond and emerald inlaid collar belongs to Mohamed Ali Pasha. This collar consists of 16 decorative motives, eight having the inscription “Mohammed Ali” while eight in the shape of a gold flower with diamonds.

• • A gold chessboard and the chess consisting of 32 pieces inlaid with 425 stones from diamonds and decorated with colored enamel. This collection belongs to King Farouk.

• • A gold binocular encrusted with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
  • A collection of pocket watches belonging to members of family of Muhammad Ali Pasha.

Dazzling pieces of jewelry were designed and made especially by the greatest designers in Europe for the queens and princesses of family of Muhammad Ali Pasha.

• • A platinum tiara fixed with over 2.000 diamonds and white pearls belonging to Princess Shivakiar, wife of King Fuad I.

• • A platinum crown of Queen Farida, the wife of King Farouk, is inlaid with white and yellow diamonds.

• A brooch of princess Fawzia, the daughter of Fouad I and sister of King Farouk, from diamonds and gold.

Mohamed Ali family built a lot of palaces in Egypt:

• Some of it used as the headquarters of rule as Al Gawhara Palace in Citadel of Saladin, Abdeen Palace, and Ras Al-Teen Palace.
• Some were used for housing for the family members as Muhammad Ali Palace in Manial and Montazah Palace.

Egypt’s Capitals Museum (ECM) is located in the City of Arts and Culture in the New Administrative Capital of Egypt. This museum aims to save the Egyptian cultural and administrative heritage by displaying the essential capitals that played a significant role in Egyptian history.

The display of Egypt’s Capitals Museum: The museum concept exhibits the Egyptian capitals throughout history from Memphis to Cairo, as well as the ancient Egyptian beliefs and afterlife. The museum will display six of these capitals that have a significant role in Egyptian history and the reason for transferring from one to another. These capitals are:

Memphis

• Memphis or Mit-Rahina now is located on the west bank of the Nile. The significance of Memphis starts with uniting the Upper and Lower Egypt by King Menes or Narmer. It was the capital of ancient Egypt from the 1st dynasty to the 8th dynasty, Although Memphis did not consider the official capital of ancient Egypt after the 8th dynasty, it had a religious and political role throughout ancient Egyptian history.

Thebes

• Thebes or Luxor now is located in Upper Egypt. It is considered the world’s greatest open-air museum as it contains Luxor Temple, Karnak Complex, the Valley of the  Kings, the Valley of the  Queens, Colossi of Memnon, and Hatshepsut Temple at Deir el-Bahari, just to name a few.

This city was the capital of ancient Egypt twice:

• The first time was during the 11th dynasty, the Middle Kingdom.
• The second time was during the New kingdom.

After the New Kingdom, the importance of Thebes remained as a religious capital of ancient Egypt.

• Tell el Amarna
  It is Akhetaten or Tell el Amarna located in Minya Governorate now. It was taken as a capital for ancient Egypt by King Amenhotep IV or Akhenaten during a part of the 18th dynasty, the New kingdom. The name of this city means Horizon of the Aten, the god that king Akhenaten chose to worship.

Alexandria

• Alexandria city is located in the north of Egypt. Its history began with Alexander the Great, as he decided to build it to be the capital for his empire in 332 BC. Alexandria remained the capital during the Greco-Roman period. It has a unique history and houses several wonderful monuments dating back to different historical periods like the catacomb, Pompey’s Pillar, Citadel of Qaitbay, Montazah Palace, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Royal Jewelry Museum.

Islamic Cairo

• The Islamic Cairo was the fourth Islamic capital for Egypt. After the conquering of The Fatimids to Egypt, the ruler Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah commanded Jawhar Al-Siqilli to construct this city in 969 AD to be the capital of Egypt. Firstly, its name was Al Mansoria, referring to Al-Mansour, the father of Al-Mu’izz li-Din Allah. Then Al-Mu’izz named it Cairo or Alqahera, meaning omnipotent in the English language.

Khedival Cairo

• It is also known as Paris of the East, as Khedive Ismail dreamed. It started almost 160 years ago. Now, the development of Khedival Cairo is one of the important projects of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

The Mummification Museum is located on the east of Luxor city, in the north of Luxor Temple, It is opened in 1997, It is one of the most important museums in Egypt.

The Mummification museum concept: The concept of the Mummification museum mainly explains the mummification process and how the ancient Egyptians have preserved their dead bodies for many years.

In ancient Egyptian believes, the god Anubis was the god who was responsible for the mummification of the dead. As well, in ancient Egyptian believes, they thought that they have to save the body by mummification in order for the soul return to it again.

In addition, the ancient Egyptians mummified human bodies; they mummified the corpses of animals and birds, especially those belonging to the sacred ones. Like there are the Serapeum of the calf of the god Apis at Saqqara and the Catacombs of Ibis and the baboons of the god Thoth in Tuna El-Gebel. As well, there are mummies for dogs, cats, and crocodiles.

The museum collections are the mummification tools, some of Canopic jars, coffins, and amulets.

Some masterpieces of the museum:

• The Mummy of Masaharti: he was the General of the Army and high priest of Amun at Thebes during his father’s reign, king piedjem I, in the 21st dynasty. His mummy was discovered in the royal cache of Deir El Bahari in 1881.
• Many statues for the ancient Egyptian gods as the god Anubis, the goddess Isis, the god Osiris, and the goddess Nephthys.

The Mummification process:

The mummification process took almost 70 days inside the mummification tent.
• Firstly, the organs of the corpse were extracted through a small incision in the left side of the body, and these organs were mummified and preserved in the Canopic jars.
• Then the body would be submerged into natron salt brought from Wadi El Natron to be dried for about 40 days.
• Then the body would be wrapped in bandages of linen.
• Finally, the priests put magical amulets beside the body for protection in the coffin to move it to its tomb for burial.

Among the events of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for opening new museums in Egypt, the Ministry was opened three museums in one day, on October 31, 2020. These museums are The Royal Carriages Museum, Kafr El Sheikh Museum, and Sharm El Sheikh Museum. It is located in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate.

The history of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate: Kafr El Sheikh Governorate played an important role during the ancient Egyptian civilization, as Kafr El Sheikh Governorate houses Bhutto, the capital of Lower Egypt, before united ancient Egypt by King Menes or Narmer. After that, King Narmer started the 1st dynasty and created the first capital of united ancient Egypt, Memphis. This city is also known as Tell Al-Faraeen.

Kafr El Sheikh Museum The idea of establishing a museum in Kafr El Sheikh is back in 1993 and the project of constructing it began in 2002,This Museum displays the history of Kafr El Sheikh Governorate by exhibiting collections that have been discovered in Kafr El Sheikh Governorate at the Great Bhutto Cemetery and the temple area.  These collections are classified into three halls.

The display in the museum is divided into:

• The conflict between the god Horus and the god Seth, as there is a unique statue for the Falcon of the god Horus. This statue matches the Edfu temple statue.
• The history of Sakha city, the city where the Holy Family be hosted during their journey in Egypt.
• The archaeological sites that Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate has been contained.
• The history of science during different historical periods in medicine, veterinary, and pharmacy fields.
• The Islamic and cultural heritage of Kafr Sheikh Governorate that considered the third heritage city in Egypt after Cairo and Rasheed. The museum presents the heritage of Kafr Sheikh by displaying the Islamic heritage of the city of Fuwah.

The Coptic Museum contains the largest collection of Coptic collections in the whole world. It is located in the Coptic Cairo inside the Babylon Fortress and beside the hanging church, the Cave Church, and Ben Ezra Synagogue.

The history of The Museum This museum was opened to the public in 1910 by the efforts of Marcus Simaika Pasha, as he was interested in the preservation of Coptic heritage. He collected these collections by himself by buying the Coptic artifacts and architectural elements from older churches.

In 1939, the Service of Antiquities decided to transfer the Christian collection exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to be displayed in the Coptic Museum. Automatically, all discovered Christian artifacts are transferred to the Coptic Museum.

This museum consists of two buildings linked by a bridge. The first building was established by Marcus Simaika Pasha in 1910, while the second was added later in 1947.

It can be noticed that the facade of the Coptic Museum is identical to the facade of Al Aqmar Mosque in Moez St.

The museum collection: The building of the museum contains two floors housing various Coptic collections. These collections display the Coptic history in Egypt, as Christianity began in Egypt by Saint Mark when he visited Alexandria in the 1st Century AD. As well, these collections show how the Christian community lived in Egypt.

The museum objects reflects the merger that happened between Coptic art and the art in other civilizations as the ancient Egyptian art (as the collection of Kom Abou Billou site), Greco-Roman art, Byzantine art, and Ottoman art.

The museum display is divided into:

• Stones and frescoes section:this section houses religious scenes and stone drawings from monasteries and churches. These scenes were drawn by tempra style.
• The development of Coptic writing and manuscripts section: This section exhibits bibles written on deerskin in the Coptic and Arabic languages from the 11th to the 13th Century.
• Fabrics and textiles section: it contains the clothes of monks decorated with crosses and drawings of the Virgin and the Christ.
• Icons section:this section has a wide collection of Coptic icons from different periods with different themes and decorations. Icon is a Greek word meaning a picture that may be a drawing of saints or other religious scenes.
• Wooden works section: this section contains several wooden works as doors and chairs brought from churches.
• Metal section: it displays a large amount of silver and gold Coptic coins.
• Pottery and glass section: it displays a lot of pottery and glass objects reflecting the Coptic community and history in Egypt.

For a quick visit to the Coptic Museum, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities launched a virtual tour for the Coptic Museum, You will be able to check it via this link.  The Coptic Museum virtual tour

The Nubian Museum, also known as the International Museum of Nubia, is one of the most important archaeological museums in Egypt. It is located in Aswan city. It was opened to the public on November 23, 1997.

The history of the Nubian Museum The Nubian Museum was constructed by UNESCO during their International Campaign in Aswan to save the Nubian monuments as Abu Simbel Temples and Philae Temple after the building of the High Dam in the 1960s. Its construction was a part of the UNESCO project for building the Nubian Museum in Aswan and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC) in Cairo, Fustat.

The Nubian Museum building The museum has an area of 50,000 square meters, 7,000 of them are dedicated to the building of the museum, while the rest area is devoted to gardens and other public spaces, as the museum has a theatre holding Nubian dances.

The museum building consists of two floors. The museum was designed by the architect Mahmoud El-Hakim. This design refers to traditional Nubian village architecture, and it was built by local sandstone and pink granite.

The Nubian Museum displayThe museum concept is dedicated to displaying the development of the Nubian culture and civilization, the land of the gold as it was named in the ancient Egyptian language.

It houses three thousand objects ranging from prehistoric times to the Islamic periods, as well objects displaying the Nubian and Aswan heritage. These collections are exhibited inside the museum building and outdoor in the garden. These collections were discovered by UNESCO during their project to save the Nubian monuments.

Some of the masterpieces displayed in the museum are a skeleton dating back to the prehistoric period, crowns and jewelry made of silver, and an anthropology exhibition displaying customs and traditions of the Nubian community.

Lately, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is caring in opening museums in coastal cities as Sharm El Sheikh Museum and Hurghada Museum for more entertainment for tourists and adding cultural value for this city besides the beach tourism.

In Sharm El Sheikh, you can enjoy doing several activities as soak up the sun on the beaches, diving to see its coral reefs, snorkeling, visiting Naama Bay, and exploring Ras Mohammed National Park.

Also, Sharm El Sheikh is a city in the Sinai Peninsula, so you will be able to do safari trips in the Sinai desert and discover St Catherine Monastery and Moses mount.

Sharm El Sheikh Museum Sharm El Sheikh Museum is opened in October 2020 to be the first museum to be opened in Sharm El-Sheikh and Sinai.

The concept of displaying in this Museum is reflecting the different aspects of human civilization and culture in the ancient Egyptian and the Greco-Roman civilizations and Muhammad Ali Pasha’s family. The display in the museum is divided into:

• The Grand Hall exhibits the history of humans and wildlife in ancient Egypt and highlights the achievements of the ancient Egyptians in science, mathematics, industry, crafts, family life, and mummies and statues for gods in the ancient Egyptian beliefs. Those gods are like Thoth, Sobek, Hathor, and Horus.
• The Civilization Hall displays the funeral collection of Isetemheb, the wife of the high-priest of Amun Panedjem II, and the priestess of Isis, Min, and Horus in Akhmim, like the inner and outer coffins, Canopic jars, cosmetics, and perfume vessels.
• Then there is a hall displaying types of ships and boats used by the ancient Egyptians in several aspects of life as hunting, trade, and sun boats.
• Finally, the hall of the cultural heritage of the Sinai community and Bedouins.

This museum distinguished with its facilities, as it contains theater, traditional crafts shops, and restaurants.

The Luxor Museum is located on the east bank of the Nile River on the Nile Corniche between Luxor Temple and Karnak Complex in Luxor City, and facing the Ramesseum on the west bank . The museum is constructed to display the wealth of rare and valuable antiquities discovered in Luxor and opened to the public on 12 December 1975.

Generally, most of the museum collections were came from the excavations of the Luxor or returned from the Egyptian Museum to their original home. The collections of the  museum cover the time from the prehistoric period to the Islamic period.

The museum consists of 2 floors displaying well-carved statues for ancient Egyptian gods and kings, the bulk of it dating back to the New kingdom. In 1989, the cache hall was added to the museum to display the statues discovered in the cache of Luxor Temple. Also, there are statues exhibiting in the garden of the museum.

The museum display distinguishes with its artificial lighting system that highlights the artistic beauty of the objects.

Some master pieces of the Luxor museum:

• The statue of the god Sobek, brought from his temple in Kom Ombo.
• The statue of goddess Hathor

• The mummy of King Ahmose I, who evicted the Hyksos
• A statue of King Thutmose III, the 18^th dynasty, New kingdom

Among the events of the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities for opening new museums in Egypt, the Ministry opened three museums in one day, on October 31, 2020. These museums are The Royal Carriages Museum, Kafr El-Sheikh Museum, and Sharm El Sheikh Museum. The Royal Carriages Museum is located in Boulaq.

This museum is one of the most important four museums in the whole world, as there are just three museums with the same concept in Russia, England, and Austria.

This museum is considered a unique museum, as it distinguishes itself with its collections and building that reflect the authenticity of the Muhammad Ali family.

The history of the royal carriages museum: Khedive Ismail was the first one thought to construct this building for housing the royal carriages and horses.

At the first, this building was named (the Khedivial Carriages Service), but later, in 1922, during king Fouad’s reign, this name was changed to be (Royal Stables Department (Royal Mews)).

Like other royal buildings that belong to the Muhammad Ali family period, this building became owned by the Egyptian government after the revolution of 1952 and was converted into a museum in 1978.

The museum collections: The museum contains unique collections, all of them dating back to the Muhammad Ali family period. These collections are royal carriages of various sizes and types, as this museum is characterized by housing around 78 historically valuable royal carriages, among them the grand Alay Carriage.

This grand Alay Carriage was a gift given to Khedive Ismail during the occasion of the Suez Canal inauguration in 1869 by the wife of Emperor Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie. In return, Khedive Ismail gave her a golden bedroom. This carriage was used by Khedive Ismail during his wedding ceremony. King Farouk ordered to restore it and reused it on the inauguration of the Parliament in 1942.

As well, the museum houses oil paintings, several designs of uniforms of the Carriages Service employees, and horse riding equipment.

Some masterpieces in the museum

• The Tonneau Carriage was used for driving his highness Prince Farouk, Prince of Upper Egypt, from 1922 to 1936.
• Oil painting for king Fouad’s favorite donkey with a royal palace in the background.
• The Caravan was used for transferring the big things like furniture.