In 2025, Georges and Samuel Mohsen documented the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square as part of a broader project on the Grand Egyptian Museum and the future of Egyptology. The project also included the IFAO in Mounira, connecting the institutions that have shaped Egyptology for over a century.
Origins and Vision
In the very heart of Cairo, the Egyptian Museum stands as one of the world’s most remarkable houses of memory. Designed by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon and inaugurated in 1902, it was the first purpose-built museum in the Middle East dedicated to preserving and displaying the treasures of an ancient civilization. Its creation coincided with Egypt’s growing archaeological discoveries and the rising international fascination with antiquity, positioning Cairo as the world’s gateway to the pharaohs’ past.
Marcel Dourgnon’s Design
Marcel Dourgnon’s design is a mix of functional innovation, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical style, and a concern for how visitors would experience ancient artifacts. The building’s exterior is characterized by symmetry, colonnades, and Ionic columns. The grand portico is flanked by high-relief figures symbolizing Upper and Lower Egypt, while the keystone above the entry arch carries the goddess Isis. Inscriptions in Latin record the names of renowned Egyptologists and contributors to the field, blending aesthetic elegance with symbolic storytelling.
A Modern Structure for Its Time
Structurally, the museum was innovative. Dourgnon employed reinforced concrete—an advanced choice for Egypt at the turn of the 20th century. The museum was designed on a monumental scale, with soaring interior heights and a multi-floor layout that included ground and upper floors for displays, as well as basement levels for storage. This approach allowed for both durability and flexibility, ensuring the building could house vast and varied collections.
Light, Air, and Space
Inside, the museum’s architecture serves the artifacts it protects. A central longitudinal hall, the Grande Galerie Centrale, intersects with the Galerie d’Honneur to form the core plan. Alongside these run double-height atriums capped with skylights, bringing in natural light to illuminate the sculptures and reliefs. Air shafts and strategically placed windows encouraged ventilation, balancing Cairo’s climate with the preservation needs of the collection. At the time, this sensitivity to atmosphere and light was seen as cutting-edge.
The Treasures Within
The Egyptian Museum holds over 120,000 objects, ranging from the smallest amulets to monumental statues. Among its most important pieces is the Narmer Palette, a cornerstone of ancient Egyptian history that depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. The collection includes colossal statues of Amenhotep III, striking busts of Akhenaten, and delicate reliefs from Amarna. The royal mummies, once displayed in a celebrated gallery, give visitors a direct encounter with the pharaohs themselves.
king Tutankhamun
But perhaps the most important and best-known of all was the collection of the young king Tutankhamun. For decades, his golden mask, jewelry, chariots, and other treasures made the Tahrir museum a pilgrimage site for millions. Soon, this unparalleled collection will find a new home in the majestic Grand Egyptian Museum, where it will be displayed in its entirety for the first time, marking a new chapter in how Egypt presents its most iconic pharaoh to the world.
A World Unto Itself
Inside, the museum became a world unto itself, less a neutral exhibition hall than an environment with its own character, rhythm, and history. When it opened in 1902, the wooden vitrines, glass cases, and handwritten inventory labels represented the latest tools for cataloguing the flood of discoveries emerging from Egypt’s archaeological sites. More than a century later, those same details have themselves become historical artifacts. The faded ink on yellowing slips of paper, the trilingual captions in Arabic, French, and English, and the scratched or clouded glass of old cabinets now tell a parallel story: not only the story of ancient Egypt, but also the story of Egyptology, of how Egypt’s past was first framed and presented to the modern world.
Visitors often sense this layered quality in unexpected ways. In quiet corridors, one may glimpse wooden crates stacked in corners, or boxes left beside a doorway, each one sparking curiosity about the treasures hidden inside. Cleaning brooms and tools sometimes stand casually against the leg of a king, hinting at the daily labor that sustains the museum while subtly reminding us that this vast collection is still in the process of being cared for, moved, and rediscovered. The result is an atmosphere that is both majestic and strangely intimate—where monumental pharaonic statues share space with the humble traces of a century of scholarship, conservation, and human presence.
And perhaps this is why the museum feels so strangely intimate. You are invited to be part of an experience that does not pretend to be polished or perfect, but instead shows its seams and its age. In this unvarnished atmosphere, where dust mingles with history, you feel less like a distant observer and more like a participant in the unfolding story of Egypt’s heritage. The imperfections draw you closer, creating a sense of familiarity, even belonging, within the vastness of time.
Fragile Heritage
Yet the sight of these boxes also recalls Egypt’s long struggle to safeguard its antiquities. Since the 19th century, the country’s heritage has been subject to systematic removals and theft, from colonial-era appropriations like the Rosetta Stone and the bust of Nefertiti, to more recent cases of looting and illicit trafficking. Within the museum’s walls, even a simple wooden crate takes on an aura of mystery, suggesting not only abundance, but also absence, pointing to treasures preserved and those that have slipped away into foreign or personal collections.
Enduring Legacy
For over a century, the Egyptian Museum has safeguarded the tangible remains of one of humanity’s greatest civilizations. Though newer institutions such as the Grand Egyptian Museum promise more technologically advanced displays, the old pink building in Tahrir Square continues to enchant with its layered history. It is not just a museum of ancient Egypt, it is a museum of Egyptology itself, preserving the artifacts of both pharaohs and the scholars who sought to understand them.
Photography by Egyptian architectural and documentary photographers Georges & Samuel (The GS Studio)
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