The Gayer Anderson Museum

The Gayer Anderson Museum in Cairo is a must-see on your exploration tour of Islamic Cairo. It consists of an amazing patchwork of Islamic styles and artefacts packed into two wonderful ancient residences: Beit el-Kiridiliya (1632) and Beit Amna Bent Salim (1540).
The museum was founded by a British major, John Gayer-Anderson was born in 1881 and died in 1945., an army doctor who restored and furnished the two residences between 1935 and 1942, filling them with antiquities, artwork, furniture, glassware, crystal, carpets, silks and embroidered Arab costumes.
Used as a location in the James Bond film "The Spy Who Loved Me", the museum houses a puzzle of theme-decorated rooms: the Persian room has exquisite tiling, the Damascus room has lacquer and gold, whereas in other parts of the museum, you’ll find a central marble fountain, decorated ceiling beams and carpet-covered alcoves.
The Gayer Anderson museum is consider a totally different experience than all of these museums. Usually when one goes to a museum, the displays are in glass cases with the explanation under it. In the Gayer Anderson Museum, one just walks about gazing at the displays and feels like a part of the history of the place itself. Maybe this is because the house, including the ceilings, the walls, the corridors, and the doors are among the most interesting displays. Or maybe because the museum was once a house and people once lived here.
The house was made into a museum in 1937 when the Egyptian government decided to transform it into be a well-preserved example of early Ottoman domestic architecture. The museum is located in the back of one of the oldest mosques in Egypt, the Ibn Tulun Mosque, which was completed in 879 AD.
It contains a wonderful statue of Queen Nefertiti. It is placed in front of a Mashrabeya screen and when the sun light comes through its wooden holes, it truly looks magical, as if she might speak at any moment. In the middle of the room there is a statue of the cat goddess Bastet, and to the right of the door; there is a black mummy cover that seems a bit scary. There is also a huge bird egg inscribed with Qura'an verses.
The most interesting items of this museum inside the Gayer Anderson Museum are the plates of "Taset El Khada", which is a famous Egyptian legend. Such plates are usually made of brass or silver and have magical words and certain verses of the Qura'an written inside them. Someone who is ill would fill the plate with milk and water and leave it on the balcony overnight. It was believed that a part of the sky would come and mix with the milk and water. In the morning the sick person would drink this from the plate and be cured. The last interesting item in this room is a huge bird egg that has Qura'an written on it.
Opening hours: 09:00- 16:00