{"id":33000,"date":"2021-09-28T22:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T20:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bellitalie.org\/?post_type=destination&p=33000"},"modified":"2026-10-07T22:08:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T20:08:54","slug":"egyptian-museum-of-turin","status":"publish","type":"destination","link":"https:\/\/www.bellitalie.org\/en\/destination\/piedmont\/turin\/egyptian-museum-of-turin\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Museum of Turin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities of Turin<\/strong> is the second largest museum in the world dedicated to the world of ancient Egypt, after the Cairo Museum. It was founded in 1826 with the purchase of a vast collection from the French consul in Egypt by King Charles Felix. It is housed in the Palace of the Academy of Sciences, built in the 17th century, displaying nearly 6,500 objects out of the 30,000 stored, such as statues, sarcophagi, mummies, stelae, amulets, papyri, jewels, etc.
Among the many masterpieces, let us mention the statue of Ramesses II<\/strong>, the tombs of Kha and Merit<\/strong>, or the rock-cut temple of Thutmose III<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tomb and statue of Shemes (around 2090 BC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Tour of the museum<\/h2>\n

Here is a tour of the museum, mentioning some of the notable objects seen through the various rooms, starting from the entrance level, the basement, and following the “itinerary” that continues on the second floor, then the first, with sections that are sometimes chronological, sometimes thematic (sarcophagi, mummies) or dedicated to specific Egyptian sites. Then the visit ends in apotheosis on the ground floor with the monumental statues of kings and gods.<\/p>\n

Basement level<\/h3>\n

This small-sized level is an introduction to the museum by displaying its history and the Egyptian discoveries, exhibiting in particular the long papyrus known as the Book of the Dead of Iouefankh<\/strong>. It was the first papyrus to bear this title, when it was translated in 1842, dating back to the Ptolemaic period, between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. These “books of the dead”, actually called by their contemporaries “books for coming forth by day”, were papyrus scrolls placed near the mummies in the tombs of Egyptian nobles. They describe the passage of the soul of the deceased to escape darkness and oblivion and enter into “the day”, the afterlife, with the various stages such as the journey in the barque of Ra the sun god, the crossing of the kingdom of Osiris with the “weighing of the hearts” by Maat, etc.
Funerary formulas, varying according to the deceased, serve to guide the latter in his journey toward the other world.
This fascinating papyrus is accompanied by exhaustive translations.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Statue of Isis (1390-1353 BC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Papyrus of the Book of the Dead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Papyrus of the Book of the Dead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n

Second floor<\/h3>\n

Superb stelae, statues and sarcophagi are notably housed in the rooms of this floor, with several reconstituted tombs that date back to the first dynasties and even burials prior to the dynastic period.<\/p>\n