The Helwan Wax Museum is a small public museum located in the suburb of Helwan, in Cairo

Cairo

Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...

, Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

 , close to the Ain Helwan Metro

Cairo Metro

The Cairo Metro in Egypt is the first of only two full-fledged metro system in Africa, and the Arab World. The system consists of two operational lines, with construction having begun on a third line in 2006....

 station.

It contains exhibits of wax sculptures demonstrating important figures from Egyptian history and idealized traditional Egyptian culture. Some figures shown include Salah El-Din El-Ayoubi

Saladin

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...

 (Saladin), King Richard I "The Lionheart" of England, Amr Ibn Al-As, Cleopatra and President Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser

Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt from 1956 until his death. A colonel in the Egyptian army, Nasser led the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 along with Muhammad Naguib, the first president, which overthrew the monarchy of Egypt and Sudan, and heralded a new period of...

. The museum was founded by Hussein Bikar

Hussein Bikar

Hussein Amin Bikar , is one of the most famous Egyptian portrait painters. His career, however, spanned a number of disciplines, notably caricature, teaching, journalism and art criticism....

, a noted Egyptian painter and sculptor.

Due to the lack of air conditioning, many of the wax sculptures on display exhibit visible damage and signs of repeated touch-ups.

As of early 2009, the museum has been closed for renovations. According to a guard at the gate, only "God knows" when it will open again.