Alexandria National Museum

Housed in a restored early 20th-century Italianate villa on Tariq Al-Horreya Street that once belonged to a wealthy Alexandrian timber merchant, the Alexandria National Museum opened in 2003 to give the city a comprehensive chronological overview of its history, drawing on objects transferred from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Graeco-Roman Museum, and underwater excavations in Alexandria's harbors. The collection spans three periods across the villa's three floors: Pharaonic antiquities in the basement, Greek and Roman-era Alexandria on the ground floor, and Islamic, Coptic, and modern Egyptian history on the upper floor. Notable pieces include statues and artifacts recovered by underwater archaeologists from the submerged royal quarters of ancient Alexandria and from remains associated with the Pharos Lighthouse. The building itself retains much of its original early-1900s interior architecture and decorative detail, giving the museum an intimate scale compared with larger state collections. Lighting and display cases were updated during a 2018-2019 refurbishment to improve conservation conditions for sensitive organic and metal artifacts.