Gayer Anderson Museum

Gayer Anderson Museum in Cairo, Egypt is a historical museum housed in two old houses from the 16th and 17th centuries. The British Major Gayer-Anderson restored and filled them with beautiful Islamic and Egyptian artifacts. The museum showcases traditional Islamic architecture and gives a peek into the past life of a wealthy Ottoman-era resident.

When was the Gayer Anderson Museum built?

It was built in 1632 AD, but the houses were built before that, and overall, it was built between the 16th and 17th centuries.

 

Where is the Gayer Anderson Museum located?

Gayer Anderson Museum is located in Cairo, the capital of Egypt; it’s near Ibn Tulun mosque, so you can visit the two places together in a short time since they are not so far away; the museum is in the El Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood.

Who is Gayer Anderson?

He was born in Britain in 1881 AD, and he worked as a doctor in the British military; he was among the officers who worked in both the British army and the Egyptian army; he came to his beloved Egypt and settled in it in 1908 AD, Anderson considered Egypt his second homeland, Anderson was interested in the Egyptian monuments from different ages, especially the Islamic monuments, he collected rare collections that are currently displayed in the museum and Al-kritliya House.

Gayer Anderson Museum Cairo

The museum originally contained two houses that an archway connected; these two houses and some remaining floors throughout Cairo and perhaps in all of Egypt are considered rare and precious Islamic antiquities and belong to the Mamluk and Ottoman eras in Egypt.

Al-criteria House was established by the teacher abdel kader al Haddad in the year 1540 AD and is known as the House of Amna bint Salem; the house was attributed to her, as she was the last person to own it. “It’s considered to be her own, and the house doesn’t belong to anyone else.” It is believed that she was one of the owners of the second house. The second house was built by one of the nobles of Cairo, Muhammed Ibn Al-Hajj Salek, in the year 1631, and successive families in the village lived in it until a woman from the island of Crete lived in it, so it was known since then as the creteleiya house.

What happened to the two houses?

The conditions of the two houses have gone bad over the years, and they were almost demolished during the expansion project around the Ahmed Ibn Tulun mosque in the 1930s of the last century between 1930-1935 AD.

The committee for the preservation of arab antiquities quickly restored and repaired the two houses to become among the most creative examples of Ottoman-era architecture in Egypt.

In 1935 AD, Major Gayer Anderson, who was one of the English officers in Egypt, requested that the Committee for the Preservation of Arab Antiquities live in

the two houses and furnish them in the Arab Islamic style.

Gayer Anderso displays his archaeological collection of Islamic and even Pharaonic and Asian antiquities. He insisted that The furniture and his collection of antiquities would belong to the Egyptian people until  His death or when he left Egypt permanently.

So, the committee agreed to his demands. He indeed didn’t waste any time or effort in the organization of the two houses. He did not skimp on spending money To purchase furniture and museum items from antique houses and Ordinary markets in Egypt as other pieces of art that belong to the Islamic eras, including Arab industries and China, Persia, the Caucasus, Asia Minor, and the East Al-Aqsa, and this is in addition to some antiques from Europe.

Gayer Anderson’s death and his will

Once Gayer Anderson died, his will became real, And the two houses and what was in them became One of the properties of the Arab Antiquities Authority, which made it a museum called

Jair Anderson or (Gayer Anderson ).

 

Restorations of the two houses of Gayer Museum

the two houses were reported in the year 2000, with financing from the Agha Foundation.

In 2008, the “child” school was established in the museum garden, where artistic workshops were held for children of the region for drawing, sculpture, and tourist guidance.

This school received great demand from the people of the region, although the activities of this school have ceased completely since 2011.

 

Myths about the gayer Anderson museum.

This museum or the house had myths that people transformed over the years, and here are some of them:

• The house of Abdelkader was built around a well, which can be seen from the courtyard of the house; the myth says that its water(the water from the well) contains magical powers that bring goodness.
• Also, the well itself is the entrance to the palace of the Bat Sultan, and the jinn is under the ground, which contains many treasures and is guarded by his magic.
• Also, the Sultan has seven daughters who are asleep under the influence of magic on beds of gold and fall. On the outside of the house on Toulon Street, there is a shrine to Sheikh Haroun Ibn Al-Hussein, who was famous for his blessings and for bringing protection and prosperity to the home.
  

  Restoration of Gayer Anderson Museum

Interesting facts about Gayer Anderson Museum:

• It was found in Gayer Anderson’s diaries, which are kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington, London, that he loved Egypt so much, and that’s why he did not leave it because he spent in it his happiest days since his birth.
• The museum is written In either way of these two names ( Gayer Anderson ) or (jair Anderson ).

 

El Sayeda Zeinab neighborhood

The Gayer Anderson Museum is located in the el sayeda Zainab neighborhood; now let’s find out what this neighborhood is, where it is, and if it is famous or not.

Where exactly is El Sayeda Zainab’s neighborhood located?

It’s part of the famous old Cairo and it’s a very famous neighborhood, tourists come to it every single day not just to visit the museum but also to visit the mosque. What mosque? El sayeda zeinab mosque and it’s a very famous one.

Elsayeda Zainab, the sister of Hassan and Hussein, the grandsons of prophet Muhammed. That’s why that neighborhood is a very important reign of the Islamic world and has some of the Islamic architecture to watch or admire. That neighborhood does not only contain that mosque but also like we mentioned, the gayer Anderson museum, and we said before, Ibn Tulun mosque or at least it’s very near to each other so you can visit all of these magical places at once.

Conclusion

• As we can notice now that that neighborhood is full of architectural stories and structures, that museum is not great because it’s a museum or it’s an old one; it’s famous and great because of its original story, the two houses put together creating a new structure that lived until this day, the person who fell In love with these two houses and decided to furniture them and wrote a will indicated what to do with the houses when he leaves the country or when he died, the last owner of these two houses, the school or the myths that were everywhere about these two houses and people still know and say until this day.

• In the end, these two houses have captured the hearts of many people and still do; you can see that the museum is in a very special neighborhood in Egypt and near other historical structures from other ages; these structures have come together to form a picture of Egypt, as usual, Egypt is the place where all the civilizations come and combine in it, the foreigners and its original inhabitants love it from their hearts and can’t leave it until they die, the perfect example and proof of what I’m saying is the person behind all of this. Gayer Anderson.