Was Egypt’s Textile Museum’s holdings transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization?

CAIRO – 20 December 2020: The Egyptian Textile Museum is located on Al-Muizz Street, specifically near the Bain el-Kasserine neighborhood. It was known as Sabil Mohammad Ali.

After the completion of the development of Al-Muizz Street, the place turned into a textile museum. It houses treasures of threads, secrets and tales on pieces of fabric.

Recently, the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities decided to transfer the Textile Museum from its current headquarters on Al-Muizz Street to the Civilization Museum temporarily, until the building is restored.

This is because Khaled el-Enani,  Egypt’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, received a report on the technical condition of the Textile Museum building. The report emphasized the seriousness of the museum’s construction situation and the need to take a decision regarding it. Also, this damage can affect rare artifacts and visitors.

Ashraf Abu Al-Yazid, director general of the Textile Museum, and a specialist in ancient and prehistoric Egyptian antiquities, said that all the museum's holdings have been transferred to the place designated for it within the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, and at the present time the new display scenario is being implemented in its new location.

Abu Al-Yazid further stated in press statements that the number of the Textile Museum’s holdings that have been transferred to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization is 1000 artifacts.

Five hundred pieces were displayed in the Textile Museum, while the rest were preserved inside stores. However, all the museum’s holdings were transferred.

 In the Egyptian Textile Museum, behind each piece, you find an ancient archaeological story, expressing a specific period of ancient Egyptian history.

Each era had its own peculiarities in its clothes, and therefore the visitor will see within the halls of the museum a difference in the types of weaving, which were found through archaeological discoveries, all of which are unique holdings that were distributed among the various museums in Egypt, but after the decision to allocate a museum for textiles was made all these artifacts were collected and housed inside the Egyptian Textile Museum.

Among the museum’s holdings are a large number of paintings that illustrate the basic features of the textile industry, in addition to the methods used by the ancient Egyptian to clean clothes.

The museum also contains a large collection of children's clothes during the era of the Pharaohs. The contents of the museum are made of linen and cotton, which is a manifestation of the ancient Egyptian era, which demonstrates the Egyptian skill in making clothes, dyeing colors and embroidery.