The largest archaeological museum in the world, built specifically to house Egypt's ancient collection, which was previously split between the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square and storerooms and sites around the country. At 480,000 square metres the building is designed to hold over 100,000 artefacts — far more than any single visit can cover. The centrepiece is the complete treasure of Tutankhamun, finally shown together in one place after the artefacts were scattered across multiple buildings for a century.
The Tutankhamun galleries alone deserve three hours. The golden burial mask is here, along with the four nested coffins, the golden throne, the gilded wooden shrines, the alabaster canopic chest, and the extraordinary variety of objects buried to serve the boy-king in the afterlife. Elsewhere the museum covers the full sweep of Egyptian civilisation — the Old Kingdom statues, the Amarna period reliefs, the Late Period bronzes and the Greco-Roman rooms. Budget a full day if you want to move through it properly. The museum is 1.5 km from the main pyramid entrance; shuttle buses run between the two.