The Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir Square was inscribed on the Tentative List in 2021, at a time when the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) near the Giza pyramids had already been announced and long anticipated. That opening finally took place on 1 November 2025. We visited both museums in early November 2025, along with the New Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC) in Fustat.

Together, these three museums house an extraordinary wealth of artefacts from the pharaonic period of Egyptian history and culture, each with its own focus and highlights. It is not entirely clear to me why only the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square was placed on the Tentative List; taken together, the three museums would make a compelling case for inscription as a single World Heritage ensemble.

The Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square

Despite the immense attraction of the newly opened GEM — which reportedly drew over 20,000 visitors per day during its first week — the Egyptian Museum remains well attended, though no longer overcrowded as in the past. Entry tickets can be purchased online and are still reasonably priced at E£550 (about €10). The museum is open daily from 9:00 to 17:00.

Depending on the length of your visit, it is advisable to bring water, as there are no sales points inside the museum. Clean restrooms are available. Visitors pass a security check when entering from Tahrir Square and another at the museum entrance. Those with online tickets should keep to the right at the …

On my first trip to Cairo I had a hotel overlooking Tahrir Square. It was beautiful to see the museum square in the lit evening and the morning before all of Cairo's chaotic traffic starts to kick in. I was also the first to enter it and enjoy the museum while it's nice and quiet (it didn't get too crowded during the morning of my stay so maybe that's not an issue). The museum was on my must-do list when visiting Cairo following the Giza pyramids. I wasn't disappointed by the wealth of its Egyptology collection. The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun and many other artifacts from the valley of the kings, huge statues, mummies (I remember they cost extra to visit?), it could take hours to see it all. It doesn't replace a visit to Thebes, Memphis or any of the places it has items from and more or less enhances your visit just like any national museum would do.

So, why am I against it's inscription as a world heritage site? First off the architecture isn't as special in my eyes than what they want me to believe. It may be that, at the time, museums were using existing buildings rather than build one specifically as a museum, if that is even true, but even so that's not special enough. Secondly, the museum is to be superseded by the new Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza which makes the criteria of housing all these artifacts almost moot. It's almost …