Grand Egyptian Museum

What makes it special

The first thing you meet in the Grand Hall is Ramesses II, a statue 11 metres tall and 83 tonnes in weight.

From the hall, the Grand Staircase climbs through several floors. More than 60 statues and sarcophagi line the way, so the stairs are a gallery in their own right, and they lead you up to the twelve main halls.

Those halls run from before the first pharaohs to the Greek and Roman eras, some seven thousand years. With about 100,000 objects, this is the largest archaeological museum in the world given to a single civilisation.

Tutankhamun has galleries of his own, and they hold the entire collection from his tomb, with his gold funerary mask at its centre.

Khufu's two solar boats were found beside his Great Pyramid on the plateau. Here they are shown together under one roof.

Visiting

Inside your ticket's time slot you can enter at any point, and once in, you can stay as long as you like. Bags are scanned on the way in.

One sensible order starts in the Grand Hall at Ramesses II. The Grand Staircase leads up from there to the galleries. Go to Tutankhamun next, while you are fresh.

Work through the main halls after that, and leave Khufu's boats until late. Finish everything before you walk out. Each ticket allows one entry only, so leaving the building ends the visit.

Guided or on your own

The museum runs its own guided tour, sold beside plain admission on the official ticketing site where the time slots are listed. It is a shared group tour, not a private one, and lasts about two hours across the Tutankhamun Galleries, the Grand Hall, the Grand Staircase and the main galleries.

To set your own pace instead, take the audio guide, in Arabic, English or Japanese. It has more than 100 stops on a portable device with headphones, and needs no internet connection.

Tips

Buy only on the museum's own ticketing site, the one official seller, and pick your slot when you book, especially if Tutankhamun is your reason for coming.

If you are pairing the museum with the pyramids in one day, do the plateau first and come here after. Refreshments are sold at outlets throughout the museum, so you can stop for food without walking out on your single entry.