Gayer-Anderson Museum

Gayer-Anderson Museum Review

Also known as Bayt al-Kiritliya, the museum consists of two Ottoman houses joined together, restored, and furnished by Major Gayer-Anderson, a British member of the Egyptian civil service in the 1930s and '40s. Gayer-Anderson was a talented collector and a sensitive, artistic gentleman, from the looks of the house's contents, which include lovely pieces of pharaonic, Islamic, and Central Asian art (though there are a few oddities). Spend some time in the reception room, where a mosaic fountain lies at the center of an ornate marble floor. In the courtyard of the east house is the "Well of Bats," the subject of much storytelling in the neighborhood. The house also inspired Gayer-Anderson's grandson, Theo, who illustrated a book on the subject and became an art conservationist, involved in the restoration of Bab Zuwayla.