How the tables are built, and the index of files currently in print.
The Sohag desk publishes the working methodology openly so that any reader can evaluate the tables' reliability. This page sets out the quarterly verification cycle, the four-tier admission framework, the accessibility-audit checklist, the correction process and the full table index.
The full table index.
| File | Coverage | Lead editor | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo museum tariff | GEM, Tahrir, Coptic, Islamic Art | Heba el-Kafrawi | Quarterly |
| Luxor & Aswan fees | Luxor, Mummification, Nubian | Mohamed Abdel-Aziz | Quarterly |
| Wheelchair access audit | All 12 museums | Nadine Habashy | Annual + revisions |
| Student card acceptance | All 12 museums | Khaled el-Saggar | Biannual |
| Ramadan hours 2026 | All 12 museums | Aisha Mansy | Annual |
| Child & family pricing | All 12 museums | Heba el-Kafrawi | Annual |
| 2025 fee changes log | All 12 museums | Aisha Mansy | Year-end consolidated |
The quarterly verification cycle.
Every tracked museum is verified once per quarter through a documented three-stage process. Stage one — published source check. The lead editor for the relevant region (Heba for Cairo, Mohamed for Upper Egypt, Nadine for the accessibility dimension) reads the museum's published tariff on its official website, the Supreme Council of Antiquities' published list, and any ticket-resale platform that the museum endorses. The published readings are recorded with the date of the check. Stage two — ticket-window visit. The lead editor or a cooperative contact visits the museum's ticket window in person during the quarter and records the actual tariff being charged, the documentation requirements at the desk, the discounts being honoured, and any discrepancy between the published rate and the desk rate. Stage three — cross-reference and publication. The published and desk readings are cross-referenced. Where they agree, the entry is published as confirmed. Where they disagree, both readings are published with the disagreement noted, and the museum's visitor-services office is contacted for clarification before the next quarterly cycle.
The four-tier admission framework.
Every entry records four tiers: tourist (international visitors), resident (Egyptian residents), student (recognised student-card holders), and child/family (children's rate and family-group discount). The framework was developed in consultation with the Egyptian Disability Rights Association and the Ministry of Tourism's visitor-data unit to align with the Supreme Council's own internal categorisation. Where a museum's own framework departs from the four-tier structure (for instance, the GEM's distinction between "ticket-only" and "ticket-plus-special-exhibition" entries), the Index records the museum's actual structure alongside the four-tier mapping for cross-museum comparison.
The accessibility-audit checklist.
Nadine Habashy's accessibility audit covers thirty-seven items across six categories. Entrance and approach (six items): wheelchair-accessible main entrance, ramp gradient, kerb-cut at the drop-off point, automatic-door operation, doorbell or staff-call button for wheelchair users, and tactile signage at the entrance. Gallery navigation (eight items): lift availability and operational status, gallery threshold heights, gallery-to-gallery wheelchair circulation, seating availability for visitors needing rest stops, contrast levels in label printing, audio-described label content. Toilets (five items): accessible toilet on the museum's main floor, accessible toilet on every floor with public access, grab-bar configuration, emergency-call button operation, family-bathroom availability. Audio and hearing assistance (seven items): audio-guide availability, hearing-loop compatibility, sign-language tour availability, captioning on video content, visual fire-alarm strobes. Visitor-experience staff (six items): staff trained in wheelchair assistance, staff trained in basic sign language, staff trained in cognitive-accessibility support, multilingual staff availability, response time to accessibility request, complaint-handling protocol. Information availability (five items): accessibility information on the museum's published pages, accessibility information at the ticket desk, advance-booking option for accessibility support, dedicated accessibility-services email, accessibility map available on entry. Each item is rated yes/no/partial. The full checklist with scoring rubric is downloadable from the wheelchair-access-audit page.
Cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The Index's relationship with the Supreme Council of Antiquities is collegial but deliberately at arm's length. The Council's visitor-services unit uses our quarterly tables as a cross-check against its own internal records, and the Council's director has visited the Sohag office twice — once in 2021 and once in 2024 — for routine consultation. The Index has refused two informal proposals from the Council across the nine-year history: the first, in 2019, to incorporate the Index's data directly into the Council's published portal as an official source (we declined to preserve editorial independence); the second, in 2023, to merge the accessibility audit with the Council's own internal accessibility-review programme (we declined because the merger would have compromised our methodology's independence from the Council's institutional priorities). Both refusals were courteous and the working relationship continues normally.
The annual external audit of methodology.
Since 2021 the Index's methodology has been subject to an independent annual external audit conducted by a rotating panel of two external specialists — typically one from accessibility-policy research and one from tourism-data methodology. The audit reviews the year's published tariff tables against the methodology document, checks the corrections log for completeness, examines the museum-visit verification records, and verifies the financial transparency note against the cooperative's accounting records. The audit panel publishes a brief external statement each January; the 2021 to 2025 statements have all been positive. The audit is an extra cost — approximately three percent of annual expenditure — that the cooperative considers worth the credibility benefit. The audit panel's January 2026 statement is available to subscribers and to journalists on request.
The correction process.
Corrections to published tables are issued within thirty days of confirmation and recorded in the public corrections log. The log has been maintained continuously since the Index's first issue in 2017. The current log carries one hundred and twenty-eight entries. Each entry includes the affected museum, the original published reading, the corrected reading, the date of the correction, the source citation that prompted the correction, and the editor's brief note explaining the discrepancy. Roughly forty-five percent of corrections originate from the museums' own visitor-services offices noticing a discrepancy; thirty percent from visiting readers reporting a different rate at the ticket window than what we published; the remainder are caught by the cooperative's own quarterly review cycle.
The Egyptian Disability Rights Association partnership.
The cooperative has held a written partnership agreement with the Egyptian Disability Rights Association (EDRA) since 2020 covering the accessibility-audit framework. The EDRA reviews Nadine's annual audit reports before publication and provides written feedback that may alter the audit's published findings; in practice the EDRA's feedback has changed thirteen specific findings across five years of audits. The EDRA does not fund the Index; the partnership is editorial-collaboration only. The full partnership agreement is available to subscribers on request.
The corrections log.
Corrections to published tables are issued within thirty days of confirmation and recorded in the public corrections log. The log has been maintained continuously since the Index's first issue in 2017 and currently carries one hundred and twenty-eight entries. Each entry includes the affected museum, the original published reading, the corrected reading, the date of the correction, the source citation that prompted the correction, and the editor's brief note explaining the discrepancy. Roughly forty-five percent of corrections originate from the museums' own visitor-services offices noticing a discrepancy with our reading; thirty percent from visiting readers reporting a different rate at the ticket window than what we published; the remainder are caught by the cooperative's own quarterly review cycle. The corrections log is searchable and distributed as a quarterly PDF supplement to subscribers.
The data-licensing approach.
The Index's quarterly tables and the annual accessibility audit are released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, free for academic, journalistic and individual-traveller use with citation. Commercial use — embedding the tables in a commercial travel-guide app, integrating the audit data into a commercial accessibility-information service — requires a separate licence. Three commercial licences have been granted since 2020 on negotiated terms appropriate to the specific use. The licensing income is modest (under four percent of annual revenue) but is documented in the December transparency note. Where a licence is granted, the licensee must agree to the Index's correction-cycle obligations — if a tariff or audit finding is corrected by the Index, the licensee must update its derived product within sixty days.
Reader questions on methodology.
How current are the published tariffs?
The quarterly tables are updated four times a year, with the publication month indicated on each table. Mid-quarter changes are caught in the monthly bulletin. The Friday-by-Friday running notes go to subscribers in the monthly newsletter. If a museum changes its tariff between quarterly cycles, the change appears in the next bulletin and in the running 2025 fee-changes log.
What happens if a visiting reader is charged differently from what we published?
Write to the desk with the museum, the date, the rate published in the Index versus the rate charged at the ticket window, and any documentation the museum's ticket officer cited. The Index acknowledges within five working days and verifies with the museum's visitor-services office; resolution typically takes seven to fourteen working days. The eventual finding is published in the next bulletin and added to the corrections log.
Why include accessibility audit data in a fee tracker?
Because for many visitors the museum's accessibility provision is the determining factor in whether the visit is even possible. A wheelchair-using visitor needs to know whether the lift is operational and the accessible toilet is on the floor they will be visiting; that information is more decisive than the admission fee. The accessibility audit and the fee tables are complementary editorial products covering the same twelve museums.
Can a museum dispute an audit finding?
Yes. The audit findings are shared with each museum's visitor-services office before publication, with a fourteen-day window for the museum to respond. Where the museum disputes a specific finding, Nadine arranges a return visit to verify; eight findings have been changed in response to museum disputes across five annual audits. Where the museum and the audit cannot agree, both readings are published with the disagreement openly documented.
Do you cover small site museums beyond the twelve?
The rota is set at twelve institutions for sustainability reasons — the editorial team's capacity does not stretch further without compromising the verification standard. Small site museums beyond the rota are covered occasionally in the bulletin's "Outside the rota" section, where readers send observations and we publish them with the visitor's first name and the date of the visit; these are reader-mail items rather than verified Index entries.
How do you handle Ramadan-period changes?
The annual Ramadan-hours file is published in the bulletin preceding the start of Ramadan each year. The file consolidates each museum's Ramadan-period opening hours, any Ramadan-specific admission discounts and the Eid al-Fitr closures. The file is updated mid-month if a museum changes its declared Ramadan schedule.
What is the Index's relationship to the Supreme Council of Antiquities?
Collegial and informal. The Council's visitor-services unit uses our quarterly tables as a cross-check against its internal records and the Council's director has visited the Sohag office twice. No formal partnership, contract or funding relationship exists with the Council; we maintain the editorial distance that the documentary stance requires.
Is the methodology document public?
Yes. The eight-page methodology document is downloadable openly without subscription, revised every January, and dated. The current version is January 2026. Material changes between January revisions are noted in the relevant bulletin.
Are there commercial use restrictions on the tables?
The tables are released under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA, free for academic, journalistic and individual-traveller use with citation. Commercial use — for example, embedding the tables in a commercial travel-guide app — requires a separate licence; three commercial licences have been granted since 2020.
Three subscription tiers, three commissioned-data services.
Subscriptions sustain the editorial work. Commissioned services cover certificates, custom extracts and editorial consultations beyond the open tables.