Alexandria National Museum tours, booking, prices, reviews
Alexandria National Museum indeed is one of Egypt’s finest museums. In fact, Alexandria National Museum inaugurated by Previous President Hosni Mubarak on December 2003. Alexandria National Museum located in a restored palace. In fact, it contains about 1,800 artifacts that narrate the history of Alexandria throughout the ages. They are including the Pharaonic, Roman, Coptic and Islamic eras. There are even some more modern pieces from 19th century. They are such as glassware, silverware, chinaware and precious jewels. They provide a sense of the richness of the court of Mohammed Ali and his descendants.
Mummies shown in a special underground chamber (basement) at Alexandria National Museum. Some of the items found during the archaeological underwater excavations in Alexandria. They are now on the same floor as the Greco-Roman artifacts. In fact, Alexandria National Museum housed in the old Al-Saad Bassili Pasha Palace. He was one of the wealthiest wood merchants in Alexandria during his lifetime. Alexandria National Museum located on Fouad Street (Tariq al-Horreyya). It is near to the center of the city. Construction on the site first undertaken in 1926. The palace covers an area of 3,480 square meters. It is a white Italian-style mansion that sits in an expansive garden of rare trees and plants.
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The palace consists of four floors and an underground shelter. The shelter used during World War II air raids. The palace designed by a French engineer who used the Italian styles in its construction. His three store palace was a gathering place. It was for the upper class people of Egyptian society in Alexandria. Moreover, it included notables such as Egypt’s former Prime Ministers, Ismail Sedqi Pasha. It also included and Maher Pasha. This villa sold to the Americans as a consulate in 1960. And thereafter in 1997, purchased by the Ministry of Culture for about 12 million LE. Its conversion to a museum costed another 18 million LE.
The conversion included up to date audiovisual equipment, security and fire protection,. In the preparation of the Alexandria National Museum, the highest of standards has adopted. It is in display techniques and in the design of educational and cultural galleries. Egypt’s museums were not to assume an educational and cultural role. They rather to function as buildings for storing antiquities. The Ministry of Culture began transforming them into places to visitors. It is a cultural message about the varied creative products of the Egyptian civilization. Alexandria National Museum is unique museum in Egypt. The museum is the only one which narrates the history of the people of Alexandria. It is through antiquity.
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Passing through the main gate, one mounts an elegant semi-rounded staircase. It is in view of a life-size Graeco-Roman Period marble statue of a toga clad matron. Crossing a small but decorated foyer. It is with two rows of speckled gray marble columns. One enters Alexandria National Museum proper. One will find symbolic colors used, just as they were during Pharaonic time. They are in a specific arrangement. The Pharaonic section itself at Alexandria National Museum, features dark blue walls. This color meant to portray the journey of the ancient Egyptians. The journey is to their eternal afterlife. In the Greek-Roman Period section, objects set against a sky-blue. They reflecting romance and a lust for life.
The Copts and Muslims share beliefs about heaven. The sections reserved for artifacts from these religious traditions painted green. The artifacts within the museum’s collection not exhibited in the past. They were in storage in various other Egyptian Museums. And thus come from the Egyptian Antiquity Museum, Coptic and Islamic Museums in Cairo. Others are from the Graeco-Roman Museum and Royal Jewelry Museum in Alexandria. Items from the Pharaonic Period span each critical period. They include the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Among the masterpieces on display is a statue of King Menkaure. He is the builder of the third pyramid at Giza.
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There is also a head of a statue of Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) and a head of Hatshepsut. She is the great female pharaoh of Egypt. There is also a fine statue of a scribe. Moreover, there are also several statuettes of servants which depicted in the midst of daily activities. There are also many offering tables, building tools and statues of deities. There is a replica of a tomb. It is like those in the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank at Luxor. It contains one mummy along with genuine funerary equipment. These items include canopic jars, an anthropoid sarcophagi. They contain the mummy, ushabti figures and the deceased private possessions. The tomb meant to provide an overview of the Ancient Egyptian concept of burial and the afterlife.
Alexandria was a Graeco-Roman city of great splendor. There is no scarcity of objects from this period. Among the most noteworthy the painted terra-cotta Tanagra figurines. They are of dressed Greek women. The figurines stand motionless with styled looks. They wearing hats or veils and holding children, fans or pets. From the Roman Period, displays include busts of the Emperor Hadrian. It also has a red granite statue of Caracala. The collection also includes reports from pioneering scientific studies on the human body. They undertaken in Alexandria, complete with marble hands, legs and torsos.
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Alexandria National Museum features a display (on the Graeco-Roman floor) of artifacts. It raised during underwater excavations around Alexandria in recent years. Huge posters feature activities from various underwater sites over the last few years. Here, one finds some of the most important pieces raised from the sea bed. They include a black basalt statue of a high priest in a temple of the goddess Isis. It lifted in 1998, a 2.2 meter granite statue of Isis found in May 2001. There is also the granite stela of King Nakhtnebef. It is an identical copy of the Naucratis stela. It discovered in the Sunken City of Heraklion offshore from Abu Qir. The floor devoted to Coptic and Islamic items. It has a variety of objects from Egypt’s two most prominent religious traditions.
Coptic Christian items include icons of Jesus, Virgin Mary and the Last Supper. They also include tombstones and clothes decorated with golden and silver crosses. Among the Islamic objects a collection of 162 gold and silver coins minted in Alexandria. Many of metal incense burners, chandeliers and decorated pottery. The objects also include doors and Mashrabiya windows inset with geometrical ivory ornamentation. Finally, the lives of Egypt’s former royal family revealed in a collection . Collection include magnificent jewelry, bejeweled gold and silver awards. It also include watches, crystal glasses and vases. It also include gold-plated handbags, rings, necklaces and bracelets.
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The museum has high-tech restoration laboratory for antiquities and electronic security system. It is to preserve these precious objects. A hall in the basement has transformed into an audio visual workshop. It is in which visitors can tour the museum via computer programs . They display every item in the museum from a variety of angles. Use has made of every available space. The old garage for the American Consulate’s staff has converted into a lecture hall. It is also an open air theater for evening performances. The open air theater can accommodate an audience of about 800. The lecture auditorium holds about 150 people. Alexandria National Museum allows cameras. Camera flashes costing 30 LE.
