Egypt Modern Museums information, list, tours and online booking
Egypt Modern museum include many museums all over Egypt deserve to visit. After a visit to the Roman Amphitheater of Kom el-Dikka, walk up a few meters north, past the Alexandria Opera House , to find Cavafy’s Museum, or House. A large house, located on the 2nd floor of an old building, once owned by the Alexandrian-raised Greek poet Konstantin Cavafy. The poet has lived there for 25 years before he died in 1933. Since 1992, the poet’s apartment has been turned into a museum, housing some of his personal effects, including his old brass bed, some icons hanging on the house walls, and the modest table he used as a desk. What’s most interesting to see in the museum is the “bindery”, a small room where the poet manufactured his own poetry pamphlets. Many of his books, manuscripts and letters are also displayed in the house, spread out on tables in the different rooms of the house.
A short visit to the Mahmoud Saeed Museum in Alexandria will transport you to the 40’s and 50’s, the Egyptian 20th century golden era and a time when, after retiring from his judge duties, Mahmoud Saeed started to paint Egypt as he saw it, mixing some echoes from the past with modern techniques such as cubism and social realism. Housed in the artist’s beautiful Italian-style villa, the museum has on display about 40 of Said’s paintings. Alexandria has always been a showcase of Mediterranean beauty and the Museum of Fine Arts on Manasha Street is no exception. Every two years it organizes a biennial to display art from around the Mediterranean.
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The permanent collection includes sculpture, architecture and photography by contemporary Egyptian as well as foreign artists. You will also find drawings of rural life and surrealist paintings. In total, the museum houses approximately 1,500 pieces. The museum was once known as the Hussein Sobhy Museum, named after the city’s governor who played an important role in Alexandria’s art movement. Inside the Qaitbay Fort , you can find the Qaitbay Maritime Museum, which houses a collection of several interesting artifacts from the wars that it has witnessed. You can see relics from the Roman sea battles, the Napoleonic wars in which the fort was bombarded, as well as the British wars in which it was taken. There is also an interesting collection of sea diaphragms and sea creatures.
After a 5-year renovation process that has finally paid off, the Royal Jewelry Museum of Alexandria is reopened to tourists since April 2010. Housed in an exquisitely decorated villa that formerly belonged to king Farouk’s first wife, the museum is a true gem, offering on display a great collection of glitzy artefacts that belonged to the excessive and extravagant Egyptian monarch and his family. You have to go there to see what excess really means; diamond-encrusted garden tools are only a foretaste! Al Manial Palace, on Rhoda Island, is one of the eccentric, lesser known, but must-see attractions in the Egyptian capital. The palace was built between 1899 and 1926 by Prince Mohammed Ali, the uncle of King Farouk. The nearly 30-year long project resulted in an imposing palace combining a number of different architectural styles including Ottoman, Andalusian, Persian, and European rococo.
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Although Gawhara Palce means “The Palace of the Jewel” but don’t expect to see any jewels in the palace. Gawhara was actually the name of Mohammed Ali’s last wife, Gawhara Hanem, after whom the palace was named.
Dating back to 1814, the palace is a marvel of Ottoman architecture, to which many artisans coming from different countries have contributed, including Greeks, Albanians, Turks and Bulgarians. The building was initially intended to serve as a private residence to Mohammad Ali Pasha, which he attached residential pavilions for servants and administrative workers to. He even had a menagerie built near the palace, to house the lion, two tigers and elephant he had received as a gift from the British Lord Hastings! It is located within the fortifications of the Cairo Citadel and offers an amazing view of Cairo from its entrance.
Don’t be fooled by the non-descript exterior of Dakhla’s Ethnographic Museum. If you want a true insight into traditional life in the oasis, the museum is the place to go. Step inside and you’ll find yourself in a traditional mud-walled house, divided into an area for men, women and visitors. Around the house you’ll find old handmade embroidered clothing, baskets, jewelry, an ancient goat-skin churn and mortar and pestle for salt. Clay figurines act out scenes from daily life. Probably one of the best museums in Egypt is The War Museum in El Alamein which sheds the light on the four main countries – Great Britain, Germany, Italy and Egypt – that were involved in the WWII battle of El Alamein and its circumstances. The indoor part of the museum houses weapons, uniforms and other artefacts from the battle.
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Audio recordings will guide you through your visit and tell you the battle story from both sides. And when you’ll move outside, you’ll find a garden full of tanks, artillery and other military vehicles on display. Located in a traditional Siwan house, the museum boasts traditional Siwan objects such as silver jewelry, music instruments, wedding costumes, baskets and ceramics. Inspired by a Canadian diplomat who feared that Siwan culture and its mud-brick houses would disappear someday; the small but interesting Siwa House Museum was built to preserve and display artifacts depicting the various aspects of the Siwan life.
