Cairo’s museums, music and crafts

About Cairo’s museums, music and crafts

By the ULTIMATE Cairo Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Cairo’s museums trace five thousand years. The Egyptian Museum, opened on Tahrir Square in 1902, still holds the greatest collection of Pharaonic antiquities after the move of Tutankhamun’s treasures to the GEM; the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization at Fustat keeps the royal mummies in a hall designed to recall the Valley of the Kings; the Museum of Islamic Art at Bab al-Khalq and the Coptic Museum tell the city’s later stories. On Gezira, the Cairo Opera House is the home of opera, ballet and the symphony; and in the old city, the tentmakers of Al-Khayamiya still stitch their appliqué by hand.

The great museums

The Egyptian Museum (Tahrir), NMEC (Fustat), the Museum of Islamic Art, the Coptic Museum and the Gayer-Anderson Museum.

Music and stage

The Cairo Opera House on Gezira.

Combine NMEC with Coptic Cairo: they are a short taxi ride apart.

Crafts

Khan el-Khalili, the Street of the Tentmakers and the jewellers and weavers of the modern city: Azza Fahmy and Nagada.

Our advice: check the Opera House programme on its own site before you fly.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Cairo’s museums, music and crafts before you go.