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Museums

The great museums, from the Louvre, the Prado and the Uffizi to the Acropolis Museum and the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Last checked October 2026.

The Gallery of Maps, the Vatican MuseumsPhotograph: Pexels

Portugal

  • Calouste Gulbenkian MuseumLisbon

    The collection of the Armenian oil pioneer Calouste Gulbenkian, opened in 1969 in buildings and gardens made for it, running from ancient Egypt and the art of Islamic Persia to Rembrandt, Rubens, Turner, Manet and Monet, with a room of René Lalique's jewellery and glass. Visit website ↗

  • Museu Nacional de Arte AntigaLisbon

    Portugal's national museum of early art, opened in 1884 in a 17th-century palace above the Tagus, home of Nuno Gonçalves's Panels of São Vicente, Bosch's Temptation of Saint Anthony, Japanese Namban screens and the Belém Monstrance, made in 1506 from gold brought back by Vasco da Gama.

Spain

France

Monaco

Italy

Malta

  • National Museum of ArchaeologyValletta

    Malta's prehistoric treasures, including the "Sleeping Lady" from the Hypogeum, in the 16th-century Auberge de Provence. Visit website ↗

  • St John's Co-CathedralValletta

    The church of the Knights of Malta, built between 1573 and 1578, and its museum. The Oratory holds Caravaggio's Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608), the only painting he signed. Visit website ↗

Slovenia

None that meets our standard yet.

Croatia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Montenegro

None that meets our standard yet.

Albania

None that meets our standard yet.

Greece

  • Acropolis MuseumAthens

    At the foot of the Acropolis since 2009, with the Parthenon sculptures in a glass gallery facing the temple itself. Visit website ↗

  • National Archaeological MuseumAthens

    The world's richest collection of ancient Greek art, from the Mask of Agamemnon to the Antikythera mechanism. Visit website ↗

  • Heraklion Archaeological MuseumCrete

    The world's finest collection of Minoan art, with finds from Knossos and Phaistos, including the Phaistos Disc. Visit website ↗

  • Benaki MuseumAthens

    Founded in 1930 by Antonis Benakis in his family's mansion facing the National Garden, a survey of Greek art and culture from prehistory to the 20th century.

  • Delphi Archaeological MuseumDelphi

    The museum of Apollo's sanctuary, opened in 1903, home of the bronze Charioteer of Delphi from around 475 BC and the Sphinx of Naxos. Visit website ↗

Türkiye

Cyprus

  • Cyprus MuseumNicosia

    The island's oldest and largest archaeological museum, founded in 1882.

Syria

  • National Museum of DamascusDamascus

    Syria's oldest cultural institution, founded in 1919. It holds the 3rd-century synagogue of Dura-Europos, rebuilt inside the museum with its painted walls, and thousands of clay tablets from Ugarit, among them the earliest known alphabet.

Lebanon

  • National Museum of BeirutBeirut

    Lebanon's national archaeological museum, opened in 1942. It holds the sarcophagus of Ahiram, king of Byblos, carved with the oldest known text in the Phoenician alphabet, and a hall of Phoenician sarcophagi carved in human form.

Israel

Egypt

  • Grand Egyptian MuseumGiza

    The world's largest museum devoted to a single civilisation, beside the Pyramids of Giza, fully open since 2025. It shows the entire treasure of Tutankhamun together for the first time, with the golden mask, and Khufu's 4,600-year-old solar boat. Visit website ↗

  • Egyptian MuseumCairo

    The oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, on Tahrir Square since 1902, with more than 170,000 artefacts from the pharaohs to the Romans. Visit website ↗

  • National Museum of Egyptian CivilizationCairo

    In Fustat, Old Cairo, home of the Royal Mummies Hall, where the mummies of Egypt's great kings and queens were brought in the Pharaohs' Golden Parade of 2021. Visit website ↗

Libya

None that meets our standard yet.

Tunisia

  • Bardo National MuseumTunis

    A 19th-century royal palace, opened as a museum in 1888, with one of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics, including the Virgil Mosaic. Visit website ↗

Algeria

None that meets our standard yet.

Morocco

  • Musée Yves Saint LaurentMarrakech

    Opened in 2017 beside the Jardin Majorelle, in a building by Studio KO, showing the couturier's haute couture from the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent. Visit website ↗

  • Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary ArtRabat

    Opened in 2014, the kingdom's first museum devoted entirely to modern and contemporary art and the first large museum built in Morocco since independence, with Melehi, Gharbaoui and Belkahia alongside Picasso and Giacometti. Visit website ↗

That makes 45 museums in all.

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