Alexandria National Museum, Alexandria

Alexandria National Museum, Alexandria

The Alexandria National Museum has 3 floors of exhibits on the history of Alexandria in Al-Saad Bassili Pasha Palace, an elegant Italianate mansion.

The Alexandria National Museum has 3 floors of exhibits on the history of Alexandria in Al-Saad Bassili Pasha Palace, an elegant Italianate mansion. It displays over 1800 archaeological artifacts chronologically –

• The Ancient Egyptian collection in the basement is devoted to Prehistoric and Pharonic times spanning the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Highlights include a statue of King Menkaure who built the third pyramid at Giza, a head of a statue of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), a head of Hatshepsut, and replica of a tomb from the Valley of the Kings at Luxor with authentic funerary accessories including anthropoid sarcophagi, canopic jars, ushabti figures and private possessions of the dead.
• The first floor exhibits artifacts from the Graeco-Roman period, highlights being terra-cotta Tanagra figurines of fashionably dressed Greek women, busts of the Emperor Hadrian, Medusa figures, statue of Serapis, and a red granite statue of Caracalla. It also displays artifacts discovered during underwater excavations at Aboukir including a 2.2 m statue of Isis, statue of Harpocrates, head of Alexander, and granite stela of King Nakhtnebef.
• The second floor has Coptic and Islamic era exhibits including Christian icons, tombstones, gold and silver coins, shields, Mashrabiyas, jewellery and pottery.