Egyptian Museum Turns 115
Yesterday marks 115 years since the opening of the Egyptian Museum in its current building, the first purpose-built public museum in the Middle East and Africa.
Here is an excerpts from Revival of the Egyptian Museum Initiative. Here is the full text.
For more than one hundred years, the Egyptian Museum has been a landmark in the centre of downtown Cairo renowned for housing the world’s largest collection of Pharaonic art. The Egyptian Museum was built at a time when museums were established in urban centres to foster greater sensitivity to national identity. The notable density of artefacts in this one-of-a-kind museum attests to the staggering cultural heritage of Egypt’s first civilization, continuously attracting visitors from all over the world. Equally significant is the museum’s 19th century Beaux-Arts architecture, which provides a dignified setting for an exceptional collection.
The 1798 French expedition to Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte was the first to bring to general attention the value of Egypt’s ancient heritage, catching the interest of Khedive Mohamed Ali, who issued the first decree in 1835 regulating the excavation of archaeological sites. His decree also prohibited artefacts from being sold and exported out of Egypt without permission. In 1848, the Khedive established the first antiquities storage warehouse, situated in the Cairo district of Azbakia. This storage space soon became congested with antiquities and was broken into by robbers several times.
In 1851, under the reign of Abbas I, the antiquities were transferred from the Azbakia warehouse to one of the halls within the Citadel of Saladin. Regrettably, however, in 1854, Khedive Abbas gave all of these Pharaonic artefacts to the Prince of Austria, who had shown great interest in them during his visit. The Prince returned to Austria with this incredible treasure.
In 1858, Khedive Said appointed the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette as Director of the newly established Antiquities Service, acknowledging his care for Egypt’s cultural heritage, and his systematic supervision of many archaeological excavations across the country. The same year, Mariette was awarded a modest house in Boulaq, located close to the present-day Television Building and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This house had originally accommodated the River Navigation Company of Boulaq, one of Cairo’s ports, and became the nucleus of the first museum of Egyptian antiquities. This is where Mariette transferred the antiquities discovered during his excavations.
In 1863, Khedive Ismail approved the construction of a museum of Egyptian antiquities in the city centre, but the project was postponed due to financial constraints and Mariette was merely granted more space in front of the house in Boulaq to expand his museum. During the same year, the Boulaq Museum was officially inaugurated and opened to the public. In 1878, an unusually high Nile flood caused much damage in Boulaq; many artefacts were destroyed, as well as some of Mariette’s books, drawings and excavation documents. The Boulaq Museum was closed for renovation and repair until 1881, after which it was reopened. Mariette passed away that same year and was succeeded by Gaston Maspero as Director of the Boulaq Museum and Department of Antiquities.
In 1890, as the overall size of the collections at the Boulaq Museum increased, they were transferred to the Ismail Pasha Palace in Giza, which was located at the present-day Giza Zoo. Upon his appointment as Director of the Museum and Department of Antiquities, the scholar Jacques de Morgan reorganized these collections in the new museum, which was then known as the Giza Museum. Victor Loret temporarily assumed responsibility between 1897 and 1899, before the return of Maspero from 1897 to 1914. The palace contained many rooms, but their relatively small size and the intricate and rather complex design of the building made the display of the artefacts and the management of the museum awkward, if not difficult. The palace was simply not adapted to function as a museum, especially one where monumental sculptures could be exhibited.
After several calamities in the Boulaq and Giza Museums resulting in huge damages and even losses of invaluable artefacts, the construction of a new Egyptian Museum building became urgent. Display space had to be enlarged to accommodate the constantly increasing number of antiquities varying from small, medium to massive sizes that were discovered almost daily by archaeological missions across Egypt. Object conservation and security issues, a constant problem in the Boulaq and Giza Museums, had to be solved. The lack of space for adequate storage, laboratories, a library and administrative offices imposed huge restrictions on establishing a well functioning institution. Proper ventilation and lighting could not be provided in buildings that had not been designed as museums and also made the movement of the artefacts to a new home unavoidable.
[Unbuilt proposal by Ferdinand Martin submitted to the 1895 competition for the new Egyptian Museum.]
In March 1893, the supervisors of the Public Works Council met to discuss the issue of whether to establish a new museum of antiquities, or simply to keep the collections in the Giza Palace after undertaking some renovations to the building. It was Jacques de Morgan, at that time Director of the Antiquities Service, who urged for the construction of a new museum of antiquities. The approval came from the Board of Supervisors, headed by the Khedive and his entourage, on the 6th of May, 1894. After that meeting, the location 8 on which the new museum would be built was identified. An announcement for a competition for the best architectural design was made, granting a prize award of one thousand Egyptian pounds.
It was the first time that a competition of this kind was held on this side of the Mediterranean Sea, and it received much commentary, as evidenced by the many press articles that were written on the competition and its outcome. The main source of information on the competition was the London newspaper The Times: its Cairo correspondents gave special attention to all phases of the competition from the outset.
The jury of the competition envisaged a functional building that would meet modern standards for the professional preservation and appealing display of its contents, provide favourable work conditions for the museum’s staff and accommodate laboratories and a research area. Detailed specifications were provided by the Egyptian authorities as guidelines for the competition. With respect to the architectural style, however, the designers were free to choose whatever they considered would match well with the antiquities.
Between 80 and 116 design proposals were submitted, only 73 of which were presented to the public. Several applicants submitted designs influenced by Ancient Egypt, featuring a temple or pyramid shape. Many proposals did not adhere to the competition guidelines or exceeded the available budget. In 1895, the winning prize went to the French architect Marcel Dourgnon for his Beaux Arts, neoclassical design.
The Egyptian Museum, in Arabic “El Antikkhana”, was established in the newly designed Cairo Ismailiya quarter (or just Ismailiya for short), Cairo’s European district, named after Khedive Ismail, who launched an ambitious urban development plan for the modernization of Cairo between the 1860s and 1870s. According to an official document written by Nubar Pasha, Egypt’s Prime Minister at the time of the competition for the new Egyptian Museum, the land for the Egyptian Museum was located between the Nile and the British military barracks of Kasr El Nil. The document refers to a plot situated behind the military’s existing horse stables in this area. The order was given to remove part of the stables for the purpose of expanding the land on which the new Egyptian Museum was to be constructed. This was actually not a very convenient site for the museum, given the number of existing buildings around it, but it had the advantage of being available, being close to the Nile and located in the modern area of Cairo established by Khedive Ismail.
The cornerstone of the Egyptian Museum was laid on the 1st of April, 1897 and construction began in 1898 by the Italian company Guiseppe Garozzo & Francesco Zaffrani. Upon completion of the construction works, the artefacts were transferred from the Giza Museum and other storage facilities to the new building in around 5000 boxes. On the 15th of November, 1902, the Egyptian daily newspaper Al Ahram announced the official opening of the Egyptian Museum that same day at 4 pm by Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, in the presence of members of the royal family, Egyptian ministers, the Head of the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament, high ranking officers, foreign diplomats and their spouses, the Egyptian elite, businessmen, hundreds of other guests and the Museum Director, Gaston Maspero.
The Egyptian Museum was managed by foreign directors until 1950, when Mahmoud Hamza became the first Egyptian Director. By 1949, the British military barracks to the southeast of the museum were removed, creating a larger public space within the museum’s grounds. Five years later, in 1954, the Cairo Governorate took a large section of land west and south of the museum to construct the headquarters of the Arab League, the Nile Hilton Hotel and a building for the Cairo Municipality, where, in the early 1960s, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser established the headquarters of his Arab Socialist Union. The Union was converted in 1978 to the National Democratic Party by Nasser’s successor, Anwar El Sadat. The Nile Hilton, which was opened in 1958, is now the Nile Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
Inaugurated in 1902, Egypt’s first state museum owes its fame not only to its rich contents, but also to its splendid architecture, which provides a marvellous backdrop for Pharaonic antiquities. Based on European architectural models, the museum is typical of the large public and institutional buildings - libraries, theatres, and city halls - built at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century all over Europe and America. Such buildings were most of the time isolated, monumental, and designed in a classical style, known as the "Beaux Arts Style", that triumphed during this period.
The French architect Marcel Dourgnon, winner of the competition, was among those applicants whose proposal closely met the requirements outlined in the competition programme. His architectural design of the Egyptian Museum was wise and simple, reminiscent of the neo-classical style, combined with Greek and Roman decorative ornaments on the façade. The museum’s main entrance is flanked by two columns in Ionic order and two female sculptures in Greek style personifying the goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt. The museum’s portal is decorated with the head of the Pharaonic mother goddess Hathor. An inscription above it commemorates the opening of the Egyptian Museum by Egypt’s ruler Abbas Hilmi II.
The Egyptian Museum was the first museum in Egypt to be designed with massive internal spaces to house the large number of Pharaonic monuments. The 12 building features a symmetrical and T-shaped composition along a main and perpendicular north-south axis with the Grande Galerie Centrale in its middle, accentuated by rows of arches and columns on its longitudinal sides. The Galerie d’Honneur runs perpendicular to it and parallel to the museum’s south facade. It is designed as a sequence of double-height rectangular and circular spaces from east to west, with a Rotunda in the centre, located right after the museum’s main entrance.
Along each side of the Grande Galerie Centrale is a series of seven rooms, the Atriums. These are double-height rooms topped by a skylight and connected by an outer and inner ring gallery on both floors which surround the whole edifice. It seems that the proposal for this type of room, which offered a brilliant solution in terms of natural lighting, was decisive in the final choice of the jury.
Today, a total of 89 spacious display halls occupy two floors, although the museum was originally comprised of more than 100 display halls. The lost halls are a result of the gradual conversion of exhibition space into storage facilities due to the tremendous lack of space. The inner ring gallery on the Ground Floor is no longer accessible to the public and has been used as a storage area. The library and administrative offices have separate entrances and are located on the western and eastern corners of the museum’s south facade.
The Egyptian Museum is one of the first buildings in Egypt where concrete was used extensively. It was built on reinforced concrete and steel foundation pillars and comprises four levels. The basement, which provides extra storage space, features a concrete slab for flooring and successive stone masonry arches that support its ceiling. The ventilation system relied on natural air flow through windows which open out to the surrounding area near ground level, as well as air shafts going through the ceiling to the first floor.
The whole architectural composition is very impressive, with its succession of low and high spaces, which were originally, and are still, lit by natural light through the impressive dome above the museum’s Rotunda at the entrance, the glass panes of the Grande Galerie Centrale, the skylights of the Atriums and the many windows on the ground and first floor.
The project presented by Dourgnon for the competition in 1895 was a bit different from the one that was subsequently built. Two phases were scheduled: the first for the construction of the museum itself, and the second for further extensions located along the western and eastern sides of the building, which included extra exhibition rooms, the housing quarters of the Director, and the administration offices. The Director’s house and the administration were designed as independent 13 buildings placed at the western and eastern corners flanking the garden in front of the museum. However, these two buildings and the scheduled eastern and western extensions for additional display space were never built.
Furthermore, Dourgnon had to improve the design and a second, somewhat simplified, project was presented. In this new design, the building was more compact, and the Grande Halle in the centre of the museum, which would have had a rather industrial aspect, was replaced by the Grande Galerie Centrale, intersecting the Galerie d’Honneur.
The Egyptian Museum at Ismailiya Square, now Tahrir Square, presented from the outset a series of architectural and construction challenges for the building contractors. These problems were mainly related to the complex nature of the design made by Dourgnon. According to available documents, they had not been resolved by the time of the museum’s inauguration in 1902. Thus, from 1907 to 1909, the roof of the building was modified for ventilation, lighting and structural purposes. Repair works had to be realized to ease the weight burden off the concrete roof, as the reinforced concrete construction system, pioneered by the French engineer François Hennebique, had not been mastered at the time.
The terrace had to be almost completely reconstructed, and the original glass skylights covering the double-height Atriums, which allowed too much sun and heat inside the rooms, were transformed into skylights used in the traditional houses of Cairo, in Arabic “shoukhshekha”. The topmost horizontal glass panes of the skylights were replaced by wood covered with thin metallic sheets. Furthermore, it was decided to lower the ground floor level of the Grande Galerie Centrale, which was not high enough and its floor too weak to accommodate the monumental sculptures and artefacts.
The architect made a point of installing an iron mesh beneath the glass windows of the skylights, both to secure the roof from illegal entry and for aesthetic reasons, to hide the metallic structure of the skylight. Unfortunately, however, due to lack of funding, their installation was not completed in the northern part of the building. The only part where the mesh still remains today is in the southern wing of the Galerie d’Honneur and in the Grande Galerie Centrale.
The upgrading and development of the Egyptian Museum and surroundings, according to the original plans, continued until the 23rd of July, 1952 Revolution. Since then, political instability, heavy bureaucracy and lack of systematic planning have led to an array of negative impacts over the years that have threatened 14 the National Museum’s position as the world’s largest establishment dedicated to Ancient Egyptian artefacts.
