Egyptian Museum, Tahrir

The Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, open since 1902, still holds about 120,000 objects even as Tutankhamun's treasures move to the Grand Egyptian Museum. A foreign adult ticket costs about 450 EGP, and it is open 9 am to 5 pm.

The Egyptian Museum opened on 15 November 1902 in its pink neoclassical building on Tahrir Square. It ranks among the world's great museums, and for more than a century it was the first place anyone curious about ancient Egypt headed. Tutankhamun's collection is moving in stages to the new Grand Egyptian Museum by the Pyramids, and the royal mummies have gone to the NMEC. Even so, Tahrir still owns 120,000 objects, and only part of them is ever on show.

Much of the best is still here: the statue of Khafre in green diorite, one of the finest sculptures ever made; the Narmer Palette (c. 3100 BC), the starting point of dynastic Egyptian history; the Old Kingdom pair Rahotep and Nofret, whose eyes look strikingly alive; the gold of Tanis, the second-richest royal burial found after Tutankhamun's; and a wing of Late Period animal mummies.

The building is set to become an attraction in itself, with parts of the original 1902 displays kept as a "museum of the museum".

What to see

• The statue of Khafre in diorite
• The Narmer Palette (c. 3100 BC)
• Rahotep and Nofret, an Old Kingdom couple
• The Tanis treasure (gold of the 21st and 22nd Dynasties)
• The 1902 building itself

Visiting

• Opening hours: 9 am – 5 pm
• Tickets: about 450 EGP for foreign adults
• Best time: allow half a day; weekdays are less crowded
• Nearby: Tahrir Square; the Coptic Museum is one metro stop south