Egyptian Museum
Egyptian
Museum
The Museum
of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or Museum
of Cairo, in Cairo Egypt, is home to
an extensive collection of Ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a
representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms. As of April
2015, it is open to the public, albeit with heavy security, x-ray machines, and
metal detectors. Men may be subjected to a short but invasive pat-down scan as
an additional security measure.
The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities contains
many important pieces of ancient Egyptian history. It houses the world’s
largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities. The Egyptian government
established the museum, built in 1835 near the Ezbekeyah Garden and later to the Cairo Citadel. In 1855 Archduke Maximilian of Austria was
given all of the artifacts by the Egyptian government; these are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
A new museum was established at Boulaq in 1858 in a former warehouse,
following the foundation of the new Antiquities Department under the direction
of Auguste Mariette. The building
lay on the bank of the Nile
River, and in 1878 it suffered significant damage in a flood of the Nile River. In 1892, the collections
were moved to a former royal palace, in the Giza district of Cairo. They remained there
until 1902 when they were moved, for the last time, to the current museum in Tahrir Square.
There are two main floors in
the museum, the ground floor and the first floor. On the ground floor there is
an extensive collection of papyrus and coins used in the Ancient world. The
numerous pieces of papyrus are generally small fragments, due to their decay
over the past two millennia. Several languages are found on these pieces,
including Greek, Latin, Arabic, and ancient
Egyptian. The coins found on this floor are made of many different metals,
including gold, silver, and bronze. The coins are not only Egyptian, but also
Greek, Roman, and Islamic. This has helped historians research the history of
Ancient Egyptian trade.
Also on
the ground floor are artifacts from the New Kingdom, the time period between
1550 and 1069 BC. These artifacts are generally larger than items created in
earlier centuries. Those items include statues, tables, and coffins
(sarcophagi).
On the
first floor there are artifacts from the final two dynasties of Egypt,
including items from the tombs of the Pharaohs Thutmosis III, Thutmosis IV, Amenophis II, Hatshepsut, and the courtier Maiherpri, as well as many artifacts
from the Valley of the Kings, in
particular the material from the intact tombs of Tutankhamun and Psusennes
II. Two special rooms contain a number of mummies of kings and other royal family
members of the New Kingdom.
Categories:
Cairo,
Cairo citadel,
Egypt,
Egyptian museum,
Giza,
Nile River,
Tahrir Square,
the egyptian antiquities,
Tutankhamun,
valley of the kings
0 Comments::
Post a Comment