Alexandria National Museum

The Alexandria National Museum shows about 1,800 objects in date order across three floors of an Italianate villa, from the pharaohs to 1952. A foreign adult ticket costs about 150 EGP, and it is open 9 am to 4:30 pm.

The Alexandria National Museum opened in 2003 inside a restored Italianate villa that once belonged to an American consul. If you want the city's 2,300 years in a single morning, start here. Roughly 1,800 hand-picked objects fill three floors in date order: pharaonic on the lower ground floor, Greco-Roman on the ground floor, and Coptic, Islamic and modern upstairs.

Much of the lower floor came out of the sea. Busts and statues were lifted from the Eastern Harbour and Abu Qir Bay, where earthquakes over the centuries sank Cleopatra's quarter and the temple of Isis Pharia. The ground floor is built around Ptolemaic sculpture, a line of mummies with Fayum portraits, jewellery and a detailed model of the ancient city. Upstairs you move through Christian Alexandria (textiles and icons), Islamic Alexandria (manuscripts and ceramics) and the cosmopolitan city up to 1952, including objects from the royal palaces of Montazah and Ras al-Tin.

What to see

• Finds from the seabed of Cleopatra's quarter
• Fayum mummy portraits
• The scale model of ancient Alexandria
• Christian icons and Coptic textiles
• Royal pieces from Montazah and Ras al-Tin

Visiting

• Opening hours: 9 am – 4:30 pm
• Tickets: about 150 EGP for foreign adults
• Best time: a rainy or windy day, as Alexandria's weather can turn quickly
• Nearby: Royal Jewelry Museum, Kom el-Dikka, Graeco-Roman Museum