Attractions of The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities

Attractions of The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities,

Founded by Auguste Mariette in 1858, was originally housed at Bulak. In 1890 it moved to Giza, from which it was transferred to the present building, erected between 1897 and 1902 to the designs of the french architect Dourgnon. The Museum contains the most important collection og Egyptian antiquities of the Pharaonic and Greco-Roman periods, and is unique of its kind in representing the wholecourse of deeevelopment of a single civilization.

The more than 100,000 items in the museum include some 1,700 items from the tomb of Tutankhamen, including the solid-gold mask that covered the pharaoh’s head. Other treasures include reliefs, sarcophagi, papyri, funerary art and the contents of various tombs (including that of Queen Hetepheres), jewelry, ornaments of all kinds, and other objects. There is a block statue of Queen Hetepheres, one of the earliest examples of its type, and there is also a black granite sculpture of Queen Nefertiti. A sculpture of Amenhotep II shows him as the god Tenen. There are also granite figures of Queen Hatshepsut, as well as colossal figures of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaton) from Karnak. The museum also houses a small but fine collection of Fayum portraits from Hellenistic and Roman times.

It has 7 sections which are:

1. Tutankhamon’s Treasures.
2. Pre Dynasty and Old Kingdom Monuments.
3. The first intermediate period and the Middle Kingdom monuments.
4. Monuments of the New Kingdom.
5. Monuments of the late period and the Greek and Roman periods.
6. Coins and Papyrus of different periods.
7. Sarcophagi and Scarabs of diferent periods.