Introduction about the Egyptian museum

Introduction about the Egyptian museum

The Egyptian museum is located at the Tahrir square; it was built in the reign of the khedive Abas Helmi II. It was opened in November 1902.

The current museum is the third museum was built to restore and exhibit ancient monuments in Egypt.

First, " Antiquities Service of Egypt " used a a small building  in Azbakiah Garden in Cairo to prevent the plundering of the ancient monuments made by robbers and also the ambassadors of foreign countries , who used to collect the monuments and transport them as gift to their countries . Then the collection was transferred to another building in the Citadel of Salah Al-Din. In 1855,   the whole collection had presented to Austrian Archduke Maximillian as a gift from the ruler of Egypt, Abas Pasha.

In year 1858, August Mariette, the Director of the Archeological Department, prepared the first museum in Boulak . Unfortunately

, the Nile flooding in 1878 caused many monuments were washed away and others were stolen. Mariette work hard for establishing a suitable museum for housing the Egyptian monuments.

In year 1891, the contents of Boulak museum were transferred to annex in the Giza palace of Ismail Basha, considered the second museum.

Then, the French architect Marcel Dourgnon, won the competition organized to choose the best design of anew large museum, made the design of the Egyptian museum in a neo-classical style. The work started in 1897 and ended 1901 and was opened in 15 November 1902.

The museum contains for about more than 120,000 objects which had been discovered from many areas of Egypt dates back to different periods of Ancient Egypt.

The façade of the museum

The entrance of the façade is flanked by two Ionic columns, above the entrance found the bust statue of goddess Hathor, who used to depicted as a woman with two horns and the sun disk in between.

On both sides of the entrance found two statues of goddess Isis while wearing Greek tunic.

There are 2 letters "A" and "H" symbolized the name of the khedive "Abbas Helmi II" because the museum was established in his reign, also there are two years 1897 and 1901, represent the date of starting and finishing works of the construction.

The garden of the museum

To the left side of the garden. There is large marble cenotaph tomb made for August Mariette, as a gratitude to the services he presented for discovering and preserving the Egyptian museum, surmounted by his statue.

August Mariette was a French architect who came to Egypt to buy some Coptic manuscripts for his government. He became fond of Egyptology, so he changed his career to the field of Archeology, made many important excavations then he became the director of the Archeological Department. In 1881, he was buried in a tomb located at the back of the museum according to his desire and will. The street before the museum bears his name containing his palace.

In the middle of the garden, there is a fountain, in which two sorts of plants could be seen, the papyrus plant and the lotus flower. The papyrus plant symbol of Lower Egypt and the lotus flower symbol of Upper Egypt.

The library

The library in the left side of the construction, under the supervision of the highest Council of monuments, contains about 42,500 books, magazines periodicals, in many languages such as Arabic, English, and Dutch.