2 Best Sights in Cairo, Egypt

Often overlooked, this is one of the finest museums in Cairo, displaying a rare and comprehensive collection of Islamic art and antiquities. You can see woodwork, stucco, intarsia, ceramics, glass, metalwork, textiles, and carpets. Items are arranged according to medium, and every era—from Umayyad to Abbasid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk—is represented. Highlights include one of the earliest Muslim tombstones, dating from AD 652, only 31 years after the Prophet returned to Mecca victorious; a bronze ewer that has a spout in the shape of a rooster and that dates from the time of the Abbasid caliph Marwan II; a series of Abbasid stucco panels from both Egypt and Iraq; frescoes from a Fatimid bathhouse; wooden panels from the Western Palace; carved rock crystal; and an excellent brass-plated Mamluk door, which appears, at first glance, to have standard arabesque decoration but is in fact interspersed with tiny animals and foliage.

The metalwork section contains the doors from the Mosque of al-Salih Tala'i, as well as incense burners, candlesticks, and vases—some items have Christian symbols and some are inlaid with gold and silver. The armor and arms hall is still impressive even though Selim, the conquering Ottoman sultan of 1517, had much of this type of booty carried off to Istanbul, where it is on display at Topkapi Palace. In the ceramics section, pieces from the Fatimid Era and Iran are particularly noteworthy, as are the Mamluk mosque lamps in the glassware collection.

The vast holdings at this museum across from the Cairo Opera House consist of modern works by 20th- and 21st-century Egyptian painters, sculptors, calligraphers, and other artists. Highlights of the permanent collection include sculptures by Mahmoud Mukhtar and paintings by Mahmoud Said, both pioneers of the Egyptian modern art movement in the 1920s and '30s. The museum hosts temporary exhibitions as well.