Located in the heart of the Arab world, the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) will reopen soon after after eight years of renovation and reorganization of the collection. With a new display including approximately 1700 objects, the MIA is still one of the most important and largest collections on the subject in the world. Moved here in 1903 from its original home at the Fatimd Mosque of al-Hakim, this building is of tremendous importance as it is the oldest building purposefully built to display Islamic art.

The collection was accumulated from various sources: excavations, purchases, gifts and important Islamic monuments in Cairo. Consequently, the museum owns an impressive ceramics, textiles, metalwork, carved wood and stone artifacts that illustrate the material culture of Egypt from the 7th - 19th centuries, as well as the largest group of enameled and gilded Mamluk mosque lamps in the world. Previously arranged by material, the new scenario takes a chronological approach, beginning with the Umayyads, continuing with the Abbasid/Tulunid, Fatimid, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The second half of the tour includes artifacts from Ottoman Turkey, Persia and al-Andalus, as well as thematic sections, such as funerary art, epigraphy, calligraphy, carpets and textiles, geometry and astronomy and medicine.

Labels are primarily in Arabic, with abbreviated text in English. Brochures in English and French are available upon request.

HOURS OF OPERATION:
Open Daily 9:00 AM-5:00 PM
9:00 AM-3:00 PM during Ramadan

TICKET COST:
General Admission:

Student rates available to bearers of a valid student ID from an Egyptian university or an International Student ID Card (ISIC)

LOCATION:
Midan Bab Al-Khalq

DIRECTIONS:
By Taxi: Ask for "mathaf fan al-Islamy" or "Bab al-Khalq"

FACILITIES:
Cafeteria, gift shop, lecture room, archaeological garden, library and Audio-Visual room. The museum is also wheelchair accessible
A brochure in Arabic, English and French is also available upon request.

CONTACT INFO:
Phone/Fax: (02) 2390-1520

Personal photography permitted with the purchase of a ticket (LE 5 Egyptian, LE 10 Foreign). NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED