Can you see Tutankhamun's mummy in Cairo?

No. Tutankhamun's mummy remains in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. His golden mask, coffins and treasures are displayed at the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.

Is the Royal Mummies Hall suitable for children?

It depends on the child. The hall is calm and respectful rather than scary, and the bodies are mostly wrapped in linen, with only the faces and sometimes the hands showing. Most children over about eight find it fascinating, especially if they know the kings' stories before they go.

Why were the mummies moved to NMEC?

The old Mummy Room in Tahrir was small and lacked modern climate control. NMEC was built with nitrogen-filled cases, stable humidity and space to tell each ruler's story alongside the latest scientific research.

Royal Mummy Museums, Exhibits and Where to See Them in Cairo

Mummy Museums in Cairo: Royal Exhibits & Where to See Them

9 min read | Published: Oct 28, 2026 | Updated: Oct 28, 2026 | TRIPS IN EGYPT

Cairo is the only city on earth where you can look into the faces of Ramses II, Seti I and Hatshepsut. Their mummies, along with those of nearly 20 other kings and queens, rest in a dim hall in Old Cairo, a short drive from the busy Nile Corniche. Other museums in the city show animal mummies, painted coffins and the gold that once covered a boy king.

Three thousand years after their funerals, these rulers still draw crowds, and standing in front of them is a quiet, surprisingly personal moment. This guide explains where to see mummies in Cairo, who is on display, how they were found, what each museum costs and how to plan your visit. Here are all things you need to know about the mummy museums in Cairo:

Where to See Mummies in Cairo at the Fullest Display

Many travelers still arrive at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir expecting the royal mummies, only to learn they left in 2021. Each of Cairo's three big museums now tells a different part of the story:

Museum	What you will see	Foreign adult ticket
National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC), Fustat	Royal Mummies Hall with the kings and queens of the New Kingdom	EGP 550
Egyptian Museum, Tahrir Square	Animal mummies, coffins, mummy masks and funerary objects	EGP 550
Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), Giza	Tutankhamun's gold mask, coffins and canopic shrine	About EGP 1,830

If you only want to see the pharaohs themselves, go straight to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. Our overview of Egypt's museums covers the others in more detail.

The Royal Mummies Hall at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization

The Royal Mummies Hall sits below the main floor of NMEC, in a dark, quiet gallery designed to recall the corridors of the Valley of the Kings. Each mummy lies in its own case, filled with nitrogen and kept at a stable temperature and humidity. Beside it, you will find the original coffin where it survives, along with panels on the ruler's life and CT scans of what lies beneath the linen.

The mummies date from the 17th to the 20th Dynasty, roughly 1580 to 1100 BC. Some of the stories that bring them to life are below:

Mummy	What makes it remarkable
Seqenenre Tao	His skull shows axe and dagger wounds from battle against the Hyksos. A CT study in 2021 suggested he was executed after capture.
Ahmose-Nefertari	The queen who helped found the 18th Dynasty, later worshipped as a goddess on Luxor's west bank.
Hatshepsut	Identified only in 2007, when a loose tooth from a box bearing her name fit a gap in the jaw of an unnamed mummy.
Thutmose III	The warrior king who led about 17 military campaigns into the Levant and Nubia.
Amenhotep III	Ruler at the height of Egypt's wealth, with signs of bad teeth and obesity.
Seti I	Often called the best preserved royal mummy, with a calm, lifelike face.
Ramses II	Flown to Paris in 1976 for treatment against fungus, he reportedly traveled with an Egyptian passport.
Ramses III	CT scans in 2012 revealed a deep cut to his throat, linking his death to the harem plot recorded in ancient papyri.

The hall also holds Amenhotep I, the three Thutmose kings, Merenptah, Seti II, Siptah and several later Ramses kings. Plan on 30 to 45 minutes here, and save time for the main gallery upstairs, which traces Egyptian civilization from prehistory to the present.

How the Royal Mummies Were Found and Brought to Cairo

Most of the royal mummies were never found in their own tombs. Around 1000 BC, priests of the 21st Dynasty gathered the robbed kings from the Valley of the Kings, rewrapped them and hid them together to protect them.

The Deir el-Bahari cache. In the 1870s, the Abd el-Rassul family of Qurna found a deep shaft in the cliffs near the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and sold objects from it for years. In July 1881, the Antiquities Service learned the location, and Émile Brugsch emptied the tomb, now known as DB320, in a few days. It held dozens of mummies, among them Seqenenre Tao, Ahmose-Nefertari, Thutmose III, Seti I and Ramses II.

The KV35 cache. In 1898, the French archaeologist Victor Loret opened the tomb of Amenhotep II and found a second hiding place. Alongside the owner lay Thutmose IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah and several Ramses kings. Both groups traveled by boat to Cairo, where they stayed in the Egyptian Museum for more than a century.

The Pharaohs' Golden Parade. On the evening of 3 April 2021, 22 royal mummies, 18 kings and 4 queens, left Tahrir Square for NMEC. Each rode on a decorated vehicle in a nitrogen-filled case, in chronological order, through roughly 5 km of central Cairo. The Royal Mummies Hall opened to the public a few weeks later.

Mummies at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir and the GEM

Losing the kings did not leave Tahrir empty. The Egyptian Museum keeps one of the best animal mummy collections in the world on its upper floor, with cats, crocodiles, ibises, falcons, baboons and even fish. Many were offerings sold to pilgrims at temples, while others were beloved pets buried with their owners.

The same floor shows painted wooden coffins, cartonnage mummy masks and the Roman-era Fayum portraits, painted faces once laid over the wrapped body. Displays of canopic jars and amulets explain each step of ancient Egyptian mummification, the 70-day process of drying the body in natron and wrapping it in linen.

At the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, you will not find Tutankhamun's body, but you will see everything that once surrounded it. His three nested coffins, including the solid gold inner coffin, the golden mask and the alabaster canopic chest show how a king was sent into eternity. Read about the discovery of his tomb and the legend of the pharaohs' curse before you go, and the halls will mean far more.

The ideas behind it all, from the judgement of the dead to the journey through the underworld, are covered in our guides to ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs and the Egyptian Book of the Dead.

Tickets, Opening Hours and Tips for Seeing the Mummies

These are the official NMEC ticket prices, and the Royal Mummies Hall is included in the main ticket:

NMEC ticket	Price
Foreign adult	EGP 550
Foreign student with valid ID	EGP 300
Egyptian adult	EGP 90
Egyptian student	EGP 45
Children under 6	Free

Opening hours: NMEC opens daily from 9 am to 5 pm, with the last ticket at 4 pm. An evening session from 6 pm to 9 pm, with the last ticket at 8 pm, makes it one of the few Cairo museums you can visit after dark. Check the evening days before you go, as they have changed in the past.

Getting there: NMEC stands beside Ain el-Sira Lake in Fustat, near the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As. The nearest metro station is El Malek El Saleh on Line 1, a short taxi ride away. A taxi or Uber from Downtown takes about 20 minutes.

Tips:

Photography is not allowed in the Royal Mummies Hall, so put your phone away before you enter.
The hall is kept cool and dim, so take a light layer and give your eyes a minute to adjust.
Children may find the mummies frightening, so talk about what they will see beforehand.
A guide makes a real difference here, since the labels are brief.

Beyond Cairo: Tutankhamun and the Mummification Museum in Luxor

One famous king never made it to Cairo. Tutankhamun still lies in his own tomb, KV62, in the Valley of the Kings, in a climate-controlled glass case inside the tomb. He is one of the very few pharaohs you can still see where he was buried, and his story is told in our page on King Tutankhamun.

Luxor also has a small Mummification Museum on the Corniche, with animal mummies, embalming tools and the well-preserved mummy of a priest named Masaharta. You can see both on our Luxor Museum and Mummification Museum Tour from USD 65, or combine the Valley of the Kings with the Full Day Tour to Luxor West Bank from USD 60. From Cairo, the 2 Days Luxor Tour from Cairo by Plane from USD 560 covers both banks.

In Cairo itself, our Cairo Wonders and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization Trip from USD 100 includes the Royal Mummies Hall with a guide. Pair it with the Half Day Tour to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo from USD 30 or the Half-Day Tour to the Grand Egyptian Museum from USD 75.

See the Royal Mummies With Trips In Egypt

Few experiences in Egypt are as moving as meeting the kings you have read about since childhood, still keeping their quiet watch three thousand years later. Give the mummies a morning or an evening in Cairo, and the temples of Luxor will feel far more personal when you get there.

Examine our Egypt tour packages to find trips that include Cairo's museums, or ask us to plan a tailor-made tour around the pharaohs you most want to meet. Book us now or contact our operation department today.