Grand Egyptian Museum

The Largest Archaeological Museum In The World, Holding Tens Of Thousands Of Objects With The Complete Tutankhamun Collection Shown Together For The First Time, A Hanging Obelisk, Khufu'S Reassembled Solar Boat And A Grand Staircase Of Royal Statues Looking Out At The Pyramids · Giza, Giza

Egypt spent two decades building a new national museum on the desert edge beside the Giza plateau, and the result is the largest archaeological museum in the world: a vast wedge of a building whose windows look straight out at the pyramids, holding tens of thousands of objects with room for them. The headline is Tutankhamun. For the first time the whole contents of the tomb - more than five thousand items, most of which had never been displayed at all - are shown together in galleries built for them, rather than crammed into a corner of the old museum in Tahrir. Elsewhere there is a grand staircase lined with royal statues that climbs towards a window framing the pyramids, a colossus of Ramses II in the atrium, a hanging obelisk you walk under, and Khufu's cedar boat reassembled after being lifted out of a pit beside the Great Pyramid. The building opened in stages, so check what is open and book a timed ticket before you travel.

On the Cairo-Alexandria desert road at the edge of the Giza plateau, about 2 km from the pyramids, Giza, Giza, Egypt

Open daily with long daytime hours and later closing on some evenings, and timed-entry tickets sold online in advance - this is the one site in Egypt where booking ahead genuinely matters, because entry slots fill in high season. The museum opened in phases and the arrangement of its galleries, including whether the Tutankhamun halls need a separate timed ticket, has been changing; confirm the current set-up when you book rather than relying on a guidebook. Large bags go into lockers at the entrance. There are cafes and restaurants inside, which matters in a building this size. It stands about two kilometres from the Giza plateau on the desert road, with its own car park and shuttle arrangements, and is a thirty to sixty minute drive from central Cairo depending entirely on traffic.

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