The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir is one of Cairo's historical and tourist attractions. It is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East and the first building in the world to be built as a museum. The idea for its construction began in 1895, when French architect Marcel Dornieu won the international competition that was held to design the museum building, and was inaugurated by Khedive Abbas Helmy II in 1902. In April 2021, the museum was the centre of the world's attention as it bid farewell to 22 royal mummies to be moved to their permanent home at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat in a solemn procession.
The neoclassical design of the museum building is characterised by a two-storey building that houses outstanding collections of Egyptian antiquities from the pre-dynastic period to the Greek and Roman eras, including the King Narmer painting that commemorates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under one king, and a collection of statues and artefacts of the kings of the pyramid-building era. of the Pyramid Builders, the funerary collection of Yuya and Toya, the grandfather of King Akhenaten, and the treasures of Tanis, in addition to a large collection of animal mummies, papyrus, coffins and jewellery from various Egyptian eras, and other artefacts that complement the museum's distinctive collection.
