The archive

All notes, most recent first.

Six essays on museums we keep going back to.

Cairo··8 min

The Mahmoud Khalil Museum: Degas, Gauguin, and Renoir on the Nile

The private collection of an early-twentieth-century Egyptian statesman, now a public museum in Giza. How thirty Impressionist masters ended up on the west bank of the Nile — and what the rooms feel like on a quiet afternoon.

Cairo··10 min

Manial Palace: The Island House of a Prince

Prince Mohamed Ali Tewfik's palace on Rhoda Island is five buildings in five styles, a garden of rare trees, and a small royal museum. A wander through the most romantic open-air museum in Cairo.

Cairo··8 min

Abdeen Palace: A Royal Museum Complex in the Heart of Cairo

The former residence of the Egyptian royal family now houses five themed museums — silver, arms, medals, presidential gifts, and historical documents. A surprisingly sprawling afternoon.

Cairo··9 min

The Gayer-Anderson Museum: Two Mamluk Houses, One British Major

An officer of the British army spent fifteen years filling two seventeenth-century Cairene houses with oriental antiques. The result is a perfectly preserved interior — and, for fans, the setting of a James Bond chase scene.