Cover The Grand Egyptian Museum's main hall features a row of colossal statues of pharaohs. (Photo: Mohamed Elshahed / Anadolu / Getty Images)
The Grand Egyptian Museum's main hall features a row of colossal statues of pharaohs. (Photo: Mohamed Elshahed / Anadolu / Getty Images)
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The Met, the Louvre, the Grand Egyptian Museum—discover the largest museums in the world and why they belong on every traveller’s bucket list
When the Grand Egyptian Museum finally opens its doors in November 2025, it won’t just be Egypt celebrating. The unveiling of this colossal new institution is set to shift the cultural map worldwide. Vast enough to rival the Louvre, the Met or the Hermitage, it joins the rare league of museums whose scale and ambition define what a museum can be. Some of these giants began as imperial palaces, others were designed from the ground up as monuments to civilisation, but all of them offer something beyond sightseeing. They create encounters that stay with you: moments when art, history and human ingenuity feel immediate and almost personal.
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The Louvre, Paris: triumph carved in stone
With 72,735 square metres of gallery space and over 615,000 artworks, the Louvre reigns as the world’s largest museum by exhibition area, welcoming around 9 million visitors annually. While crowds flock to glimpse the Mona Lisa, seasoned travellers know the museum’s most breathtaking moment awaits elsewhere. Ascending the grand Daru staircase, you’ll encounter the Winged Victory of Samothrace in all her headless glory. This Hellenistic masterpiece commands the landing with such presence that visitors often gasp upon first sight, making this encounter far more stirring than viewing Leonardo’s famously diminutive portrait.
State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg: palace of the tsars
Spanning about 67,000 square metres of gallery space across six buildings, the Hermitage Museum houses over 3 million items, making it the world’s second-largest museum by exhibition area. The institution welcomes 3 million visitors annually to experience a unique proposition: simultaneously exploring one of the world’s greatest art collections and wandering through the opulent former residence of Russian royalty. The true masterpiece isn’t hanging on the walls but surrounds guests entirely, from the gilded splendour of the Jordan Staircase to the mesmerising green malachite columns, creating a marriage between container and contents.
National Museum of China, Beijing: bronze age grandeur
Boasting nearly 200,000 square metres of gallery space and over 1.4 million artefacts, this monumental institution attracted 6.75 million visits in 2023. Standing before the Houmuwu Ding is like confronting the physical weight of history itself. This colossal bronze ritual vessel from the Shang Dynasty tips the scales at an astounding 832.84 kilograms, making it the heaviest piece of ancient bronzeware on earth. Its imposing presence and intricate surface decorations speak to the technological mastery and spiritual beliefs of a civilisation that flourished over 3,000 years ago.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: ancient Egypt in Manhattan
In 2024, more than 5.5 million people walked through the Met’s doors, drawn to its 58,800 square metres of galleries and a collection of over 2 million works that span the sweep of human history. Few museum experiences match the surreal wonder of stepping into the Temple of Dendur. This complete Egyptian temple, dating to 10 BC, was gifted to the US and painstakingly reconstructed within the Met’s soaring, glass-walled gallery. The juxtaposition is magical: visitors are transported from bustling Manhattan to ancient Nubia in a single footstep, while Central Park’s trees frame the view beyond.
Vatican Museums, Vatican City: Michelangelo’s divine ceiling
The Vatican Museums, which welcomed approximately 6.8 million visitors in 2024, function as an elaborate pilgrimage route culminating in art history’s most profound spiritual experience. Standing beneath Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling to absorb the sweeping narrative of Genesis transcends typical art appreciation. The overwhelming scale and emotional intensity of The Last Judgment on the altar wall create a moment of awe that has moved visitors to tears for centuries. This encounter with divine artistic genius represents the absolute pinnacle of Renaissance achievement.
Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza: Tutankhamun’s complete legacy
The Grand Egyptian Museum’s opening in November 2025 delivers what Egyptology enthusiasts have dreamed of for a century: the complete treasure of King Tutankhamun displayed together for the first time since Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery. The Tutankhamun galleries will house all 5,398 artefacts from the boy king’s tomb, including his iconic solid gold death mask and nested golden coffins. Modern technology enhances the experience, allowing virtual tomb exploration that recreates Carter’s original discovery. Spanning 500,000 square metres, the Grand Egyptian Museum and its over 100,000 artefacts represent the ultimate ancient history pilgrimage.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London: eclectic wonders collide
With 145 galleries spread across over 50,000 square metres, the Victoria and Albert Museum’s charm lies in its glorious unpredictability. Where else can you admire an 18th-century automaton depicting a tiger mauling a European soldier, then encounter a towering plaster cast of Michelangelo’s David, before exploring five centuries of high fashion? This collision of disparate creative wonders (more than 2 million objects), from the world’s oldest Islamic carpets to cutting-edge contemporary design, creates a uniquely British cabinet of curiosities that celebrates human creativity in all its magnificent forms.
From Paris and New York to Cairo’s new Grand Egyptian Museum, the largest museums in the world are more than cultural landmarks—they’re experiences that shape the way we see history, art and ourselves. Each one belongs to the traveller’s bucket list, not just for their scale and collections, but for the rare chance to stand face-to-face with humanity’s greatest achievements.
After more than a decade in lifestyle media, Clifford has mastered the art of writing seriously about things that are fun—and writing fun things about people who take themselves very seriously. At Tatler Asia, he helped steer its flagship lists, Tatler’s Most Influential and Asia’s Most Stylish. And today, he leads T-Labs, Tatler Asia’s content innovation hub, where he continues the noble pursuit of lifestyle storytelling, spinning stories on wealth, entertainment, necessary style, Hallyu, Hollywood, beauty and more for audiences across Asia.
