One of the main attractions of Turin is the Egyptian Museum (Museo Egizio), which houses the largest in Europe and the world's second collection of exhibits dedicated to the history and culture of Egypt. While in Turin, try to find time to visit this museum, you will not regret it. In terms of wealth and value of the exhibition, it is second only to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Appearance story
The Egyptian Museum in Turin dates back to the XVIII century, from the moment when the Sardinian king Carl Emanuel III began to collect a collection of objects related to Egypt. The first exhibit of the collection was a tablet brought to the king from the temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis. After she was in the hands of the king, he sent the scientist Vitaliano Donati to Egypt to search for other similar antiquities. Through the efforts of Donati, the collection was replenished with 300 ancient artifacts.
However, the official date for the creation of the Egyptian Museum is called only 1824, when Karl Felix, the then king of Sardinia, decided to acquire the Egyptian collection of Bernardino Drovetti, who, holding the post of Consul General of France in Egypt, gathered many antiquities. At that time, the “Egyptian theme” was very popular in Europe, and the museum’s collection was quickly expanded. Famous Egyptologists such as Francois Champollion (French: Jean-François Champollion) and Ernesto Schiaparelli (Ernesto Schiaparelli) contributed. The formation of the collection continued until the twentieth century. The last major acquisition at the museum was a miniature temple, delivered in the 60s from Nubia.
Until 2012, the Egyptian Museum was in the same building as the famous Galleria Sabauda art gallery. Then the gallery "moved" to one of the premises of the Royal Palace (Palazzo Reale; Palazzo Reale), and the museum received an additional area - including part of the basement. The museum building itself on the eve of the Winter Olympics in Turin was rebuilt and restored.
The most interesting exhibits
The exposition of the Egyptian Museum includes more than 30 thousand exhibits. Of the greatest value are items recovered from the burial of the most beautiful of women who lived on Earth - the famous Queen Nefertiti. This jewelry, crests, household items and other things that, according to the ideas of the ancient Egyptians, the deceased queen in the afterlife could need.
Of great importance to historians, archaeologists and just lovers of Egyptian antiquity are various papyri. The most famous is the “Royal Papyrus” - a scroll listing all the historical and mythological characters that have ever ruled Egypt.
The scroll not only mentions the names of the rulers, but also briefly describes their main achievements. The total length of the papyrus is about 170 centimeters, but it is not a whole scroll, but a lot of fragments of different sizes (some of them a little more than a centimeter). This happened due to the fact that the fragile scroll, when transported to Turin, crumbled into small fragments, and the restorers had to work hard to preserve it.
Another curious scroll kept in the museum’s collection is the Turin erotic papyrus. For a long time, a scroll longer than 2.5 meters was kept in storage and was not appreciated by historians.
Now it is included in the main exhibition. The scroll consists of 27 erotic drawings, which are interspersed with illustrations of satirical content. The papyrus map 280x41 centimeter in size is also stored in the same museum: it is the oldest geographical map in the world.
In the sculptural hall of the museum you can see statues of pharaohs and sphinxes. On the second floor there is an extensive collection of mummies, mummification tools and fragments of scrolls included in the Book of the Dead.
Another interesting part of the exposition of the Turin Egyptian Museum is a collection of objects that were placed in the burial places of ancient Egyptian officials: gold jewelry, dishes, tools and even food. The museum stores bread baked more than three thousand years ago. Now it looks more like a lump of clay, but what is surprising is that it has generally survived to the present day.
Schedule, ticket price
The Egyptian Museum in Turin is located at Via Academia delle Scienze, 6 - it is in the very center of the city, so it will not be difficult to find it. The museum is open every day from 8:30 to 19:30, except for the weekend - Monday - and Catholic Christmas on December 25.
Tickets can be bought at the box office of the museum or on its official website: www.museoegizio.it. Their cost is:
- without benefits - 7.5 euros per person;
- for preferential categories of visitors - 3.5 euros. The preferential categories include visitors aged 18 to 25 years, teachers and persons accompanying visitors with disabilities;
- disabled people, military, children and adolescents under 18 years old, older people over 65 are entitled to visit the museum for free.
