Mahmoud Mukhtar Museum

From the rear entrance of the Gezira Exhibition Grounds near the Galaa Bridge, you’ll see a modest gate across the road, which leads to the Mahmoud Mukhtar Museum. Mukhtar (1891–1934) was the sculptor laureate of independent Egypt, responsible for Saad Zaghloul on the nearby midan and the Egypt Reawakening monument outside the Giza Zoo. His collected work ranges from tiny caricatures (look for Ibn al-Balad, a spunky city kid) to life-size portraits. Mukhtar’s tomb sits in the basement. Egyptian architect Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911–74) designed the elegant building – originally open, to capture natural light, but this was changed presumably to keep the cleaning budget down.