This is the QPass standing file on the permanent museum collections of Egypt — the Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza plateau, the historic Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation in Fustat, the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo, the Museum of Islamic Art at Bab al-Khalq, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the four embedded museums inside the complex, the Greco-Roman Museum after the October 2023 reopening, the Luxor Museum and Mummification Museum, the Nubian Museum in Aswan, and the smaller specialist collections including the Royal Jewellery Museum in Alexandria. Twenty-two cards in total, rotated quarterly for the Cairo institutions and twice-yearly for the regional ones.
Each card opens with the current ticket structure in Egyptian pounds — base ticket, supplements, combined tickets, student rate, camera permit — and is followed by the editor's verdict on what is worth the time inside, what is worth the supplement, what is skippable, and the side door that bypasses the standard queue. The verdict is the part of the card most subscribers say they actually use; the ticket comparison is the part that gets cited in the corrections column when prices change. Both parts are rotated together on the published rotation schedule.
Card 001Ticket EGP 450 adult, EGP 230 student, camera EGP 50 separate. Verdict: 2.5 h on the second-floor jewellery rooms 4 and 21 plus the everyday-life cases on the ground floor near the Tutankhamun chariot. The basement is humid on rainy days — humidity readings spike. Side door: the left desk avoids the main camera-ticket queue.
Card 002Ticket EGP 1,200 adult, GEM Tutankhamun supplement worth it, Solar Boat supplement worth it on the first visit. Verdict: 3.5–4 h. The grand staircase, the Tutankhamun gallery walked in funerary-procession order, and the children's wing (only museum in Cairo with interactive displays). Side door: the GEM café is the only museum café in Cairo we recommend.
Card 003Ticket EGP 500 adult. Verdict: 2.5 h. The Royal Mummies Hall is the most concentrated single room in Egyptian museum-craft and the social-history wing on the upper floor is consistently under-visited. Side door: the Mar Girgis metro stop is closer than the main parking and the entry is cooler in summer.
Card 004Ticket EGP 200. Verdict: 90 min. The Nag Hammadi codices on the upper floor are historically extraordinary. Modern-icon room skippable. Pair with the Hanging Church and Ben Ezra for a half-day walking visit. Side door: Mar Girgis metro brings you to all three.
Card 005Ticket EGP 250. Verdict: 2 h. The Mamluk metalwork gallery (post-2014 restoration) is the strongest room. The wood-mashrabiyya screens on the upper level are worth the supplement. Textile annex skippable if short of time. Side door: the rear entrance avoids the school-group queue at peak hour.
Card 089Ticket EGP 200 main library, supplements for the four embedded museums. Verdict: 3–4 h half-day visit. The Antiquities Museum inside the complex is the strongest single room, the Manuscripts Museum runs second. The architecture earns the visit on its own. Side door: the southern entrance has the quieter desk.
Card 092Ticket EGP 300. Verdict: 2 h. Tanagra figurines (largest collection outside Athens), the Serapeum head, Hellenistic jewellery cases. The basement coin room skippable unless you collect. Side door: book online a day ahead in high season — the post-restoration ticketing is strictly timed.
Card 040Ticket EGP 300. Verdict: 90 min. The Cachette of Luxor Temple statues (uncovered 1989), the royal mummies of Ahmose I and Ramses I, the reconstructed Akhenaten wall from the talatat blocks. The strongest small museum in Egypt. Side door: the evening session is consistently quieter than the morning.
Card 041Ticket EGP 150. Verdict: 60 min. Canopic-jar sequence, mummified-animals room, the practical embalming-process explanation wall. Easy pairing with the Luxor Museum next door for a single evening visit.
Card 071Ticket EGP 200. Verdict: 2 h. The rescue-archaeology wing (UNESCO-relocated objects from the 1960s and 70s), the contemporary-Nubian-culture room, and the open-air courtyard with reconstructed dwellings. The strongest small museum south of Cairo and consistently under-visited. Side door: the 17:00 evening session.
For subscribers who want the cards reduced to a working comparison. Visit times are realistic median durations from QPass editor visits; tickets are current as of April 2026 and have been stable since the 2023 post-pandemic round.
| Institution | City | Ticket | Time | Best window |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Egyptian Museum | Giza | EGP 1,200 | 3.5–4 h | 08:30 opening, weekday |
| Egyptian Museum, Tahrir | Cairo | EGP 450 | 2.5 h | 09:00, weekday |
| National Museum of Civilisation | Cairo | EGP 500 | 2.5 h | 09:00 or 15:00 |
| Coptic Museum | Cairo | EGP 200 | 90 min | 09:00 – 10:30 |
| Museum of Islamic Art | Cairo | EGP 250 | 2 h | 10:00 or 14:30 |
| Bibliotheca Alexandrina | Alexandria | EGP 200+ | 3–4 h | 10:00 Sun–Thu |
| Greco-Roman Museum | Alexandria | EGP 300 | 2 h | 10:00 opening |
| Luxor Museum | Luxor | EGP 300 | 90 min | 17:00 evening session |
| Mummification Museum | Luxor | EGP 150 | 60 min | Pair with Luxor Museum |
| Nubian Museum | Aswan | EGP 200 | 2 h | 17:00 evening session |
| Royal Jewellery Museum | Alexandria | EGP 200 | 75 min | 10:00 opening |
Three honest readings from the desk after twenty-two cards. The Grand Egyptian Museum is the strongest single institution in Egypt as of spring 2026 and will probably hold that position permanently as the remaining Tahrir-basement collection migrates. The Nubian Museum is the strongest small museum in the country and earns the time over the Aswan corniche-side museums if you have one museum day in the south. The Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, post-reopening, has moved into the top tier and is the only Alexandrian institution that on its own justifies the Cairo-to-Alexandria day-trip — though pairing it with the Bibliotheca and the catacombs makes the train ride pay back more.
Read alongside the On-the-Ground Sites file for the open-air temple and pyramid cards, the Honest Itineraries file for the walked plans that put the museums into a working day, and the Preflight Checks file for the visa, money, SIM and dress-code basics that apply across every visit.
The Open Pass tier (USD 18 / quarter) gives full access to the 118-card archive. QPass Plus adds the printed half-year visit-letter; Editor's Pass adds the planning-hour exchange and the Cairo backstop call.
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