In 1835, Mohammed Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Egypt, issued a decree whereby any antiquities found by individuals should be handed over to one Rafa Al Tahtawy, an Egyptian scholar and Dean of a Cairo school. This step, in turn, led the setting up of the Antiquities service and a new Egyptian museum located in Cairo, in 1835. Various buildings and locations were utilized over the years until a purpose-built building was opened in 1902, the Egyptian Museum near Tahrir Square, Cairo. With all eyes on the new museum development, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), nearing completion on the Giza Plateau overlooking the Pyramid complex, this publication looks back to the 19th and 20th Centuries, to follow the complex weave of antiquities collections in Egypt, the rise of the Antiquities Service and the development of the Egyptian Museum. El Antikkhana: 1835-2020 The Egyptian Museum – 185 years in the making