Beyond King Tut: Cairo’s Egyptian Museum looks to reinvent itself

CAIRO — For more than a century, the Egyptian Museum sat on Cairo's Tahrir Square as the undisputed gateway to ancient Egypt, attracting streams of scholars and tourists to its crowded galleries. But with its royal mummies and Tutankhamun treasures now housed in newer museums, the 124-year-old institution is confronting a new question: What should its next chapter look like?

The opening in 2021 of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in the Cairo district of Fustat, followed last year by the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum near the Pyramids of Giza, has reshaped Egypt's museum landscape.

Both of these new institutions drew on the Egyptian Museum’s most treasured holdings. Some 22 royal mummies were transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in a globally televised procession, while the treasures of King Tutankhamun were moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, where they form the centerpiece of its collection and displays.

The impact on visitor numbers to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has been significant.

Speaking to the local newspaper Youm 7 in June, Egyptian Museum director Ali Abdel Halim said that daily attendance, once averaging 7,000–8,000 visitors and sometimes more, had fallen to 1,000–2,000. Yet, officials and archaeologists note, the museum still houses around 100,000 displayed artifacts, with an additional 100,000 in storage, making it one of the richest collections of ancient Egyptian material anywhere.

With the museum's 125th anniversary approaching in November 2027, calls have been growing to mark the milestone with a revamping of the institution.

A monument in its own right

Designed by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon in 1897, the Egyptian Museum was among the first buildings in the Middle East to use reinforced concrete. The building itself is listed on Egypt’s heritage site register for its architectural value.

Situated on Tahrir Square, the Egyptian Museum occupies a prominent position on one of Cairo’s best-known public spaces and a place closely associated with modern Egyptian political history, including the 1919 Egyptian Revolution and the 2011 uprising that led to the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak. Meanwhile, the museum itself is the site of a different type of history.

Magdy Shaker, a senior archaeologist at the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, told Al-Monitor, “The museum is a witness to two historically important developments: First, to the birth of ancient Egyptian civilization itself. It was the beginning, the grandfather, as people say. And second, to the founding of Egyptology as a discipline.”

Shaker rejects the notion that the Egyptian Museum's newer counterparts eclipse it in terms of the history represented in its collection.

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, he noted, encompasses the breadth of Egyptian history, including the story of civilizations from prehistoric times to the modern day, while the Grand Egyptian Museum was purpose-built around the Tutankhamun collection.

The Egyptian Museum, meanwhile, is highlighting its lesser-known treasures, including the burial goods of Psusennes I, the “Silver Pharaoh” of the 21st Dynasty. The French archaeologist Pierre Montet discovered his tomb in 1939 at Tanis, in the northeastern Nile Delta. Its gold funerary mask can easily be mistaken for Tutankhamun's, Shaker said, adding that the king was buried in a rare silver coffin.

Objects from the tomb of Yuya and Thuya — Tutankhamun's great-grandparents and the parents of Queen Tiye — are also displayed. The couple's largely intact burial chamber included a chariot, coffins and gilded masks.

The museum also offers temporary exhibitions showcasing the history of ancient Egypt, such as “From Green Papyrus to Eternal Art,” an international art exhibition that opened in December 2025.

Prior to that, in December 2024, the museum hosted “The Scents of Ancient Egypt Through the Ages,” an exhibition showcasing the art and history of perfume making in ancient Egypt. A collection of ancient perfume containers and manuscripts recording perfume recipes were among the objects on display, sourced from its own collection as well as from the Museum of Islamic Art and the Coptic Museum, both of them located in Cairo.

A new identity

Any renovation of the Egyptian Museum must take into account the building’s historic character, Shaker cautioned. For example, installing central air conditioning could require alterations to historic walls. “Technology should be introduced carefully, without damaging the monument,” he said.

The prominent Egyptian archaeologist Hussein Bassir, also director of the Antiquities Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, said the fall in visitor numbers at the Egyptian Museum reflects a redistribution of roles among the various museums in Egypt rather than a decline in the value of the museum’s collection.

“The real challenge is not the building of new museums, but ensuring a museum ecosystem where institutions don’t work against each other,” he told Al-Monitor.

The Grand Egyptian Museum can serve as Egypt’s international gateway to ancient Egyptian history, Bassir said, while the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization tells the broader story of the country’s history, spanning its many civilizations and eras. That would leave the Egyptian Museum, he suggested, to focus on the history of the collection itself and on Egyptology as a discipline.

Bassir specifically pointed to a proposal previously put forward by former culture minister Farouk Hosny to transform the museum into an international center for Egyptological research.

The plan would combine exhibition spaces with research fellowships, training programs, a specialist library, conservation laboratories and temporary exhibitions from other Egyptian museums.

Such an approach, Bassir said, would preserve the museum’s public role rather than turn it into an institution reserved only for academics.

He advocates making only limited building upgrades, such as improved lighting, better security and updated fire-suppression and climate-control systems. Bassir also favors introducing digital ticketing and, as part of the visitor experience, smartphone applications or augmented reality tools. The apps and other tools could be used to help visitors learn such things as where an artifact was discovered, who excavated it, and what its original setting looked like, but “without filling the galleries with screens.”

Neighborhood revitalization

Both Shaker and Bassir said the Egyptian Museum’s future is closely tied to renovating its surroundings.

Shaker noted the need to improve the broader area surrounding Tahrir Square, including the Nile Corniche, the Qasr el-Nil Bridge, the neighboring Mogamma building complex and Abdel Moneim Riad Square.

Cafes, cultural events and better street lighting would help ensure that the area remains active around the clock, “the way you’d find outside the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower,” Shaker said.

He also proposed introducing evening opening hours to attract visitors after dark.

Last month, Hisham el-Leithy, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is already looking at the 2027 anniversary as an opportunity to reintroduce the museum to the world following a reorganization of its displays.

Speaking at a press conference, Leithy explained that development work at the museum is ongoing in preparation for its 125th year.

For Bassir, the Egyptian Museum’s future lies not in trying to imitate its larger, newer rivals, but in embracing its unique place in Egypt’s cultural history.

“We shouldn’t try to make the Tahrir museum a smaller copy of the Grand Egyptian Museum,” he said. Instead, he argued, the best approach is to preserve its individuality.

“If the Grand Egyptian Museum is Egypt’s gateway to the future, then the Tahrir museum is the memory of the museum itself and the memory of Egyptology.”