History of The Egyptian Museum
For most people, the idea of witnessing real magic is quite absurd but everything changes when you step inside one of the oldest museums in the world. It contains the biggest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts which makes it a house of absolute wonder and beauty.
The Egyptian Museum contains many artifacts from the different stages of the ancient Egyptian civilization evolution. The history of Egyptian museum goes way back at it was first constructed in 1835 near Ezbekeyah garden but was later moved to Cairo citadel by Mohammed Ali in order to protect the heritage of Egypt. All of the Egyptian museum artifacts were given to Archduke Maximilian of Austria in 1855 and are still located in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
So, a new improved museum was built in 1858 in Boulaq under the director of the Egyptian department of antiquities Auguste Mariette but it was unfortunately damaged by the Nile River Flood. In 1902, a new museum was established in the city that never sleeps Cairo in front of the voice of freedom the Tahrir square which remains the official Egyptian Museum until today.
Contents of The Egyptian Museum
Inside the Egyptian museum is about 120,000 rare magical artifacts from 2700 BC at the beginning of Egypt old kingdom to Egypt New kingdom to even the Greco-Roman Period. The building consists of two floors, the first floor (Ground Floor) and the second floor. The ground floor holds all the massive displays like coffins, masks, large states, stones tablets and items found in the royal tombs of many Kings and Queens. The second floor contains a lot of the smaller objects like jewelry, papyrus papers, funerary objects and most of the displays of many royal tombs. The artifacts are organized according to the historical periods starting with the old kingdom up to the Greco-Roman period.
One of the most famous artifacts is the Narmer Plate that tells the story of the unification battle by the hands of King Menes and part of the legacy of the age of the pyramids the olds era. On the ground floor, statues of king Khufu, Khafre and many others will be found. Most of the monuments in the Museum belong to the New Kingdom (1550-712 BC) covering three dynasties from the 18th to the 20th, these artifacts differ from crown, wooden objects, gold statues of goddess-like Hathor, Amun to luxurious belongings of many Kings and Queens such as Thutmosis III, Thutmosis IV, Amenophis II, Egypt’s most powerful Queen Hatshepsut, The Great Ramses II also, of course the famous Boy-King Tutankhamun, and many others from the new kingdom.