Egyptian Museum
The Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, is home to the most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world. It has 136,000 items on display, with many more hundreds of thousands stored away.
The Egyptian Antiquities Service, established by the Egyptian government in 1835, in an attempt to limit the looting of antiquities from sites, and protect artifacts. The museum moved to its present location, a neoclassical structure on Tahrir Square in Cairo's city centre, in 1900.
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The museum's Royal Mummy Room, containing 27 royal mummies from pharaonic times, was closed down on the orders of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. It was reopened, with a slightly reduced display of New Kingdom kings and queens, in 1985.
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