Lying in the heart of Egypt's capital at Cairo's famed Tahrir Square, the Egyptian Museum has been fascinating and astonishing the world with its treasured collections for more than a century.
The museum marked its 113th year of existence on Monday with a celebratory ceremony that welcomed visitors, public figures and antiquities officials including Antiquities Minister Mamdouh El-Damaty with flowers, musical performances and free guided tours.
The anniversary is reason to celebrate, as the Egyptian Museum, home to the world's largest and most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities, certainly has a great story to tell.
Although the museum was officially opened in its current place in 1902, its original collection came together in 1835 in a building near Al-Azbakeyah Garden and was then temporarily moved to the Cairo Citadel in 1855.
It was French archaeologist Auguste Mariette who established the original museum in 1858 in the Boulaq district, after he founded Egypt's first antiquities authority, the "Service des Antiques de L'Egypte" which is now Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The collection was later moved to Ismail Pasha's Giza palace in 1891 after the Boulaq building was damaged by Nile flooding, it remained there until it finally came to rest in Tahrir Square.
The building itself is a treasure as it was designed in neo-classical architecture by French architect Marcel Dourgnon. It has two main floors and 107 halls that display 120,000 artifacts, with thousands more in storage.
The exhibit of Tutankhamen's treasures is arguably the main highlight of the museum's predominately ancient Egyptian collection, as it contains the most famous symbol of ancient Egypt, the gold funerary mask of the boy king.
Then there's the Royal Mummies Room exhibit, which displays the mummies of a group of significant New Kingdom pharaohs including Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Tuthmosis III and Ramses II.
Another main highlight is the Narmer Palette which is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world, as it contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions and depicts King Narmer's unification of Egypt.
In addition, the museum is home to monuments of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, the contents of the New Kingdom's royal tombs and a distinguished collection of papyrus.
Despite the fact that the Grand Egyptian Museum (which will act as the newer version of the mueum when it's opened) is currently under construction, the Egyptian Museum in its current form will always have a special place in history and the hearts of millions of visitors forever fascinated by the creations of human civilization.