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Agricultural Museum
It may sound dull, but the Agricultural Museum, near the 6th of October Bridge, is quite fascinating and verges on the bizarre. The displays tell you all you ever wanted to know about agriculture in Egypt, from Pharaonic times onwards, and range from Roman loaves and giant plastic fruits to glass cases packed with stuffed birds and a Pharaonic-era mummified bull from Memphis. The easiest way to get here is to catch the metro to Doqqi station.
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Cairo Atelier
Gallery off Sharia Mahmoud Bassiouni, as much a clubhouse as an exhibition space, frequented by Cairo's art-world old guard.
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Contemporary Image Collective
Excellent exhibits documenting Egyptian life and occasionally shows videos on its rooftop.
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Coptic Museum
Founded in 1908, this museum houses Coptic art from Graeco-Roman times to the Islamic era drawn from Cairo, the desert monasteries and Nubia. In recent years it has undergone a major restoration, and parts have been closed to the public. By the time you read this, the full collection should be on show. Exhibits include textiles, frescoes, stonework, woodwork, manuscripts, glass and ceramics. There's a pleasant enclosed garden and a small café.
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Egyptian Museum
With so much to see in the Egyptian Museum, trying to get around everything in one go is liable to induce chronic 'Pharaonic phatigue'. The best strategy is to make at least two visits, maybe tackling one floor at a time. Unfortunately, there's no best time to visit as the museum is packed throughout the day.
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Egyptian National Railways Museum
Mahattat Ramses is an attractive marriage of Islamic style and industrial-age engineering. At its eastern end it houses the Egyptian National Railways Museum, with a beautiful collection of old locomotives, including one built for Empress Eugénie on the occasion of the opening of the Suez Canal.
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Egyptian Textile Museum
Directly across the street from the Madrassa & Mausoleum of Barquq, the Egyptian Textile Museum was slated to open in 2008.
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Gawhara Palace & Museum
South of Mohammed Ali's mosque is another terrace with good views. Beyond the terrace, the dull Gawhara Palace & Museum lamely attempts to evoke 19th-century court life.
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Gayer-Anderson Museum
The quirky Gayer-Anderson Museum gets its current name from a British major, John Gayer-Anderson, an army doctor who restored and furnished the two adjoining 16th-century houses between 1935 and 1942, filling them with antiquities, artworks and Oriental artefacts acquired on his travels in the region. The houses and their contents were bequeathed by Gayer-Anderson to Egypt (he died in 1945) and have been lovingly restored by a British mission.
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Karim Francis Art Gallery - Downtown
Francis is one of Cairo's more influential curators.
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Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum
Leaving the Gezira Exhibition Grounds from the rear entrance near the Galaa Bridge, you'll see a modest gate across the road leading to the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum. Mokhtar (1891-1934) was the sculptor laureate of independent Egypt; he was responsible for Saad Zaghloul on the nearby midan and for the Mother of Egypt statue outside the entrance to the Giza Zoo. The gallery building was designed by Egyptian architect Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911-1974).
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Manial Palace Museum
It will take only 20 minutes to walk from the Semiramis InterContinental down the Corniche until you hit the small Manial Bridge. Crossing this, you will come to Sharia al-Saray and one of Cairo's least visited and most eccentric tourist sites, the Manial Palace Museum. The palace was built in the early part of the 20th century as a residence for Prince Mohammed Ali Tawfiq, the uncle of King Farouk, Egypt's last monarch.
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Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art
One of the first independent galleries, a bit cramped but representing the bigger names in painting and sculpture.
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Midan Ataba
In Midan Ataba, 'modern European' Cairo runs up against the old medieval Cairo of Saladin (Salah ad-Din), the Mamluks and the Ottomans. It seems like one big bazaar, with all its traders and hawkers. In the southwest corner, the domed main post office has a pretty courtyard and an attached Postal Museum on the 2nd floor, whose collection tells the history of Egypt's postal service.
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Monastirli Palace
Set in a peaceful Nileside garden, Monastirli Palace was built in 1851 for an Ottoman pasha whose family hailed from Monastir, in northern Greece. The salamlik that he built for public functions is now an elegant venue for concerts, while the other part is now the Umm Kolthum Museum (%2363 1467; Sharia al-Malek as-Salih, Rhoda; admission around £E2 ; h - ).
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Mr & Mrs Mahmoud Khalil Museum
The wonderful Mr & Mrs Mahmoud Khalil Museum includes sculptures by Rodin and a rich selection of French works by the likes of Delacroix, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Manet, Monet and Pissarro. There are also some Rubens, Sisleys and a Picasso. The paintings are housed in a temperature-controlled villa, the former home of Khalil, which was later taken over by President Sadat. It's just a few minutes' walk south of the Cairo Sheraton.
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Museo Mevlevi
Behind a green door with an Italian Institute sign, the Museo Mevlevi centres on a meticulously restored Ottoman-era theatre for whirling dervishes. Hidden behind stone façades, the beautiful wood structure feels like a little jewel box. Downstairs, see the remains of the madrassa that forms the building's foundation; the thorough notes are a rare model of thoughtful excavation.
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Museum of Islamic Ceramics
A beautiful small museum. It's housed in a gorgeous 1924 Islamic Revival villa, where the intricately carved walls (and vintage bathroom!) are as fascinating as the colourful plates, tiles and even 11th-century hand grenades on display. The garden and back of the building are given over to the Gezira Art Center, with several galleries hosting rotating contemporary exhibitions.
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Museum of Modern Egyptian Art
Across from the Cairo Opera House, the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art houses an impressive collection of 20th- and 21st-century Egyptian art, including Mahmoud Said's masterpiece Al Madina ( The City , 1937). The ground floor is home to the museum's high-profile 'Art Today' exhibition, which showcases works by 95 artists produced from 1975 to the present day.
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National Military Museum
Mohammed Ali's one-time Harem Palace is now the lavish National Military Museum and perhaps the best-tended exhibition in the country. Endless plush-carpeted halls are lined with dioramas depicting great moments in warfare, from Pharaonic times to the 20th-century conflicts with Israel - kitschy fun to start, then eventually a bit depressing.
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October War Panorama
Built with help from North Korean artists, this memorial to the 1973 'victory' over Israel is an extraordinary propaganda effort. A stirring commentary (in Arabic only) recounts the heroic victories, but is short on detail on the successful Israeli counterattacks that pushed the Egyptians back before both sides accepted a UN-brokered cease-fire.
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Police Museum
The flyblown Police Museum, at the northern end of the terrace, includes displays on famous political assassinations, complete in some cases with the murder weapon.
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Postal Museum
A beautifully maintained collection of stamps, uniforms and even tiny scale models of great post offices throughout Egypt.
