Cairo - Egyptian Museum

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Egyptian Museum Description

To the northwest of the Liberation Square is the large range of buildings (1897-1902) occupied by the Egyptian Museum, which has the world's largest and finest collection of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman antiquities, founded in 1857 by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette (1821-81 ). To do full justice to the Museum, which can display only a fraction of its total holdings, several days would be required. Visitors who are pressed for time will do well to confine themselves to the celebrated treasures of Tutankhamun and a selection of the Old Kingdom material.

Linen production was massive and highly skilled from the Old Kingdom to the Graeco-Roman Period. Fabrics more than 2m wide were not unusual. Some were so fine they were woven

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Hobbies & Activities category: Ancient Egyptian art, artifacts; Major world-scale museum

Egyptian Museum Highlights

Egyptian Museum - Graeco-Roman and Coptic Periods

Room 34: the trilingual Decree of Canopus (238 B.C.), in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek scripts.

Egyptian Museum - Grand Gallery

Stone sarcophagi of the Old Kingdom.

Egyptian Museum - Grave Goods

Room 13: sarcophagi and grave goods from the Tomb of Yuya and Tuya, parents-in-law of Amenoph is III. Room 12: material from royal tombs at Thebes. Room 17: material from the tomb of the fan bearer

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Egyptian Museum - Jewelry

Room 3: a magnificent collection of jewelry, illustrating the development of the goldsmith's art from the earliest period (c. 3200 B.C.) to Byzantine times (A.D. 395-650). Of particular interest

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Egyptian Museum - Late Period

Room24. head of a high official (No. 1,184); head of King Taharqa (the Tirhakah of the Old Testament; No. 1,185); the " Pithom Stela" of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (No. 851 ) Room 30: alabaster statue of princess Amenirdis (No. 930).

Egyptian Museum - Middle Kingdom and Hyksos Period

Room 26. limestone statue of Amenemhet III (No. 284). Room 22 (middle): tomb chamber of Harhotep, with pictures of the dead man's household goods (No. 300); ten over-life-size limestone statues of Sesostris I (Nos 301 ff.).

Egyptian Museum - Mummies

Room 52: mummies, particularly mummies of Pharaohs, arranged in chronological order, followed by mummies of Queens. The X-ray photographs shown alongside the mummies have yielded information about their age, state of health and cause of death.

Egyptian Museum - New Kingdom

Room 12: Tuthmosis III as a young man, wearing the crown of Upper Egypt (No. 400); inscription recording Tuthmosis lll's victories (No. 420); statue of Eset (Isis), mother of Tuthmosis III (Case B,

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Egyptian Museum - Pyramid Period of the Old Kingdom

Room 42. Diorite statue of Chephren (No. 138); wooden statue known as the Village Headman (No. 140); seated figure of King Djoser (No. 6,008). Room 32: limestone statue of Prince Rahotep and his

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Egyptian Museum - Queen Hetepheres

Room 2: Furnishings of the Tomb of Queen Hetepheres, mother of Cheops.

Egyptian Museum - Treasures of Tutankhamun

The treasures found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, son-in-law and successor of Amenophis IV (Akhenaten), who died at the age of 18. The tomb, discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings

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Egyptian Museum - Tutankhamun Coffin

Particularly fine is the King's innermost mummiform coffin, of solid gold, with the royal insignia of the vulture and uraeus on the forehead (Case 29; No. 219).