National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC)

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, usually shortened to NMEC, stands in Fustat in Old Cairo, overlooking the Ain el-Sira lake. It is the museum that now holds Egypt's Royal Mummies, which were on show in the Egyptian Museum on Tahrir Square until they were moved in April 2021.

It is a different kind of museum from the Egyptian Museum. Its galleries follow Egyptian civilization as one continuous story, from prehistoric times to the modern age, rather than presenting a room-by-room treasure house of pharaonic objects.

The Royal Mummies are the reason most visitors come. The museum's own gallery page says the Royal Mummies Gallery displays the mummies of 17 kings and 3 queens of ancient Egypt. The hall lies below the main hall and is reached by a descending approach that is designed to recall a walk down the Valley of the Kings, where most of these rulers were originally buried.

If you are choosing between Cairo's big museums, the split is simple: the Royal Mummies are here in Fustat, and the Tutankhamun galleries are at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir no longer has the mummies.

Outside the mummy hall, the museum is worth the time if you want Egyptian history in sequence, including the long periods after the pharaohs that a pharaonic-only collection leaves out.

NMEC stands on the edge of Fustat, the city founded by the Arab conquerors in the 7th century, in the Old Cairo district, near Coptic Cairo and the Babylon Fortress area, rather than in modern central Cairo.

The move of the royal mummies is what brought it international attention. In April 2021 they were carried from the Egyptian Museum to Fustat in a televised procession, in specially built capsules on custom vehicles. Reports of that procession speak of 22 mummies; the museum's own gallery page counts 17 kings and 3 queens, 20 in all, so treat any other figure with care.

• The Royal Mummies Gallery: 17 kings and 3 queens, according to the museum
• A descending approach to the mummy hall designed to recall the Valley of the Kings
• Galleries that run from prehistory to the modern age
• A lakeside setting in Fustat, Old Cairo
• An evening opening session listed on the ministry's booking page