The Egyptian government established the ‘Service des Antiques de l’Egypte’ in 1835 mainly to halt the plundering of archaeological sites and to arrange the exhibition of the collected artifacts owned by the government. The Azbakian garden in Cairo was first used as a storage place for these artifacts. The collection was later transferred to another building in the citadel of Saladin.

In 1858, a museum was prepared at Boulaq, its contents collected by the French archaeologist August Mariette. In 1880, the contents of the Boulaq museum was transferred to an annex of the Giza palace of Ismail Pasha, the ruler of Egypt. The present museum was built in 1900, in the neo-classical style by the French architect Marcel Dourgnon.