Egyptian Museum or Grand Egyptian Museum?

For Tutankhamun, go to the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM): its standard admission includes the Tutankhamun Galleries, and it stands near the Giza pyramids, 6.8 km from the Sphinx. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir does not hold those galleries; choose it for its Pharaonic collections, paired with the Citadel and Coptic Cairo. The royal mummies are at a third museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC). Each of the three has a half-day tour of its own on this site.

The three museums side by side

Prices are for foreign visitors, in Egyptian pounds (EGP), as of August 2026, and they change often.

Where Tutankhamun and the mummies are now

The GEM’s official ticketing site says a standard visit includes the Tutankhamun Galleries, along with the Main Galleries, the Grand Hall, the Grand Stairs and Khufu’s Boats Museum. Some older pages still place the collection in Tahrir, such as a Ministry news page about a virtual tour of it at the Egyptian Museum, written before the transfer. If a Tahrir itinerary anywhere promises Tutankhamun’s treasures, it is out of date.

The royal mummies are in the Royal Mummies Gallery at NMEC in Fustat, which shows 17 kings and 3 queens. They are not at the Tahrir museum. Our National Museum of Egyptian Civilization tour, a half day of about 3 to 4 hours, visits the main hall and the Royal Mummies Hall.

How to choose

• One museum only: half days of about 4 hours with a private Egyptologist, from your hotel in Cairo or Giza: Grand Egyptian Museum with a guide covers the Grand Hall, the Grand Staircase and the Tutankhamun Galleries, and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir covers the galleries of the older museum.
• Tutankhamun, or a museum on your pyramids day: Grand Egyptian Museum and the pyramids visits the pyramids, the Sphinx and the Valley Temple, then drives 6.8 km to the GEM, about 11 minutes without traffic.
• Tahrir with the pyramids: Giza pyramids and the Egyptian Museum is a full day of about 8 hours; the Sphinx to the museum is 20.4 km, about 20 minutes without traffic.
• Tahrir with the Citadel and Coptic Cairo: Egyptian Museum, the Citadel and Coptic Cairo adds the Citadel and the Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the Hanging Church, the Church of St. Sergius and the Ben Ezra Synagogue.
• Both museums: the two museums, GEM and Tahrir, does both in about 7 hours, and pyramids and both museums in a day adds the pyramids and the Sphinx in about 9 hours, with lunch. Over two days, the GEM tour and the Citadel tour repeat no site.

The three full days above (Grand Egyptian Museum and the pyramids, Giza pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, and the Citadel tour) are private, for your group only, with an English-speaking Egyptologist (a guide trained in ancient Egyptian history), lunch at a local restaurant, and entrance fees to the sites in the itinerary. The half days and the two-museum day have the same guide and entrance fees but list no meal. To compare them with our other Cairo days, see Cairo day tours for first-time visitors; for the pyramid sites, see Giza or Saqqara first.

Visiting from outside Cairo

From Alexandria, Grand Egyptian Museum from Alexandria is a GEM day with lunch; the museum is 211.3 km from your hotel, about 2 hours 23 minutes without traffic. The Cairo days by plane from Hurghada, Sharm El Sheikh, Marsa Alam, Dahab and Luxor all pair the GEM with the Giza pyramids. Domestic flights are not included in the tour price. Between two flights at Cairo airport, Cairo on a layover visits the pyramids and the Sphinx and adds the GEM if your layover leaves time.