Kha and Merit's tomb
A whole life sealed 3,400 years โ bread, furniture, perfumes.
Georgius LXXXIX at Italian Wikipedia โ Public domain ยท Prof. Mortel โ CC BY 2.0 ยท ElisabettaCastellano โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท FrDr โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The Savoy kings began early, then the kingdom bought (1824) the vast collection of Drovetti, French consul in Egypt โ putting Turin ahead of all Europe with a standalone Egyptian museum, Champollion arriving to study straight after decipherment. The rest is a century of licensed Italian excavation shared with Egypt โ Kha's complete tomb among its fruits.
Cairo is the mother, no question; London and Paris are departments within general giants โ Turin is the largest purely Egyptian museum outside Egypt and the most modern in display and narrative. For Arabic speakers an added intimacy: their heritage shown with respect, their language present.
Excellent from six: mummies, giant statues, thrilling dark halls โ with family routes and activities bookable on the site. The golden rule: two hours, then gelato on neighbouring Piazza Carignano.
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Turin's Egyptian Museum is the world's oldest devoted to the Nile's civilisation (1824) and, uncontested, the greatest outside Cairo: forty thousand objects, twelve thousand shown โ a collection begun in consuls' spoils and swelled by a century of licensed excavation, until Champollion, decipherer of hieroglyphs, declared: "the road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin". Its treasures rank with the summits: the rock temple of Ellesiya entire, Egypt's gift for the Nubian rescue; the tomb of Kha and Merit โ architect and wife with all their furniture, bread and pigments as sealed 3,400 years ago, the completest non-royal tomb outside Egypt; the darkened Gallery of Kings with its stage-lit granite colossi; and the Turin Royal Canon, most precious of pharaohs' lists. The latest renewal made it a thoroughly modern storytelling museum โ with Arabic present in its texts and guides: our ancient civilisation told here at world level.
A whole life sealed 3,400 years โ bread, furniture, perfumes.
Pharaonic granite in legendary stage light.
A whole Nubian temple within a hall โ the Abu Simbel rescue's gift.
The most precious king list โ history in its scribe's hand.
Via Accademia delle Scienze 6, 10123 Turin