Inside the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo (finally)

The collections are arranged in 12 galleries divided by theme (society, royal power, beliefs) and by period (prehistoric, ancient, middle and new kingdom). Natural light penetrates from outside and allows the thousands of exhibits to be seen at their best.

The collection of Tutankhamun is the exact opposite but just as spectacular: the7,500 square metre area is bathed in darkness, with artificial light illuminating the masterpieces dedicated to the child pharaoh, from the golden mask to the thrones to the sarcophagi and jewellery. Despite the crowds at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, viewing is pure pleasure.

The Gem is an 'easy' museum: moving from one room to another, retracing one's steps, everything is intuitive and well signposted. The only drawback is the lack of an in-depth description of each period. The individual works are well presented with signs in English but the framing of the historical context is too sketchy.

Although it has only been open for a few months, the Gem has already firmly entered the list of sites to visit in Cairo. It is therefore already very crowded even during periods considered low season. In the era of global overtourism, the high season now lasts 365 days a year.

Those who decide to stay in the city for a few days are spoilt for choice.

For museum enthusiasts, there is the NMec with its famous mummy room, transported here in 2021 in a solemn ceremony, or the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, which has surrendered its most precious treasures to its younger 'cousins' but retains the retro charm of its early 20th century exhibition venues.

Il complesso con la moschea e l’università di al-Azhar, massima istituzione religiosa dell’Islam sunnita

Not everyone knows that Cairo boasts one of the best-preserved medieval Islamic city centres in the world, along with Fes in Morocco. The al-Muizz street between the gates of Bab al-Futuh and Bab Zuweila is an open-air museum where one cannot count the mosques, madrasas and mausoleums spanning a thousand years of history. Masterpieces of fine art that testify to the cultural richness of the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. Cairo, in short, is not only Pyramids and Gem. It is a vibrant metropolis with a thousand years of history that emerges here and there with its jewels among slums, dumps, traffic jams and not always decent poverty alongside luxury hotels and pleasant expat quarters.

Il grande cortile della moschea di Ibn Tulun, della fine del IX secolo, il più antico del Cairo conservato ancora con lo stile dell’epoca