Hurghada Museum

Hurghada Museum tickets and prices

Foreign adults pay 300 EGP and foreign students with ID pay 150 EGP; children under 6 get in free. The audio guide is an extra 50 EGP. Phone photography is free — no camera ticket needed — while commercial filming needs a ministry permit.

Tickets are sold on the official Egymonuments website, in the Experience Egypt app and at the gate. Online tickets are for a set date and are non-refundable. The museum rarely has a queue, so there is no real need to book ahead.

Visa and Mastercard are officially accepted at every sales point, the ticket desk included. Still carry some small Egyptian pound notes for the taxi and tips — dollars and euros are not a reliable way to pay on site.

Opening hours: morning and evening sessions

The museum opens every day in two sessions: 10:00–13:00 and 17:00–23:00, with last entry at 12:00 and 22:00. It is shut from 13:00 to 17:00, which catches out plenty of people who turn up after lunch.

The evening session is the smart choice in Hurghada: spend the day at the beach or on a boat, then see the galleries once the heat has gone. Arrive by 21:00 to give yourself a full hour.

In Ramadan the evening session starts at 20:00 and the morning one is shorter. The two official ministry pages give slightly different Ramadan times, so confirm with your hotel or at the gate.

Is Hurghada Museum worth visiting?

Yes, if Hurghada is your only stop in Egypt. It is the one place in town with genuine antiquities rather than souvenir-shop replicas, and it is small, air-conditioned and quiet — a good evening out, or a plan B on a windy day when boats stay in port.

If Cairo, Giza or Luxor is on your itinerary, it is optional: the collections there are many times larger. There are no colossal statues or tombs here — it is a compact display you can see in about an hour. Labels are in Arabic and English, and some objects have none, so the audio guide or a guide adds a lot.

Kids usually like the mummies and coffins; under-6s go free, though they will not last long in the galleries.

What to see inside

• The bust of Queen Meritamun in white limestone — daughter and wife of Ramesses II, and the museum's signature piece.
• The afterlife display: coffins, mummies, offering tables and canopic jars.
• Ancient beauty kit — wigs, perfume and ointment vessels, jewellery — the museum's central theme.
• Musical instruments, games and household objects showing everyday life on the Nile.
• Graeco-Roman marble sculpture, portraits and pottery from Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt.
• Coptic icons and a decorated Torah case — Christian and Jewish heritage side by side.
• Islamic glass mosque lamps, lustreware and weapons, then oil portraits from modern Egypt.

A short history

Egypt's prime minister opened the museum on 29 February 2020, making it the first antiquities museum on the Red Sea coast. It was also an experiment: a private investor paid for the building, while the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities handles the collection, curation and security.

The building has two floors, with shops at street level and around 3,000 m² of galleries above. Many of the roughly 2,000 objects came from storerooms in the Red Sea region, the rest from museums elsewhere in Egypt, arranged around how Egyptians have understood beauty across the ages.

How to do it right

• Go in the evening session: beach by day, cool galleries at night, then dinner at the marina.
• Start with the Meritamun bust, then walk the rooms in order — from the pharaohs to modern Egypt.
• Rent the 50 EGP audio guide: several objects have no label at all.
• A student ID halves the ticket price — bring it.
• Heading to Cairo or Luxor later? Save this one for a windy day, or skip it.

Questions