Museo Egizio

The Museo Egizio occupies the Palazzo dell'Accademia delle Scienze on Via Accademia delle Scienze 6 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. It is the oldest museum in the world devoted entirely to Egyptian civilisation, and its collection is considered the largest outside Cairo. The origins lie in the collection of Bernardino Drovetti, the French consul in Egypt, whom King Charles Felix of Savoy purchased in 1824 to form the core of the museum. Later additions came from the excavations of Ernesto Schiaparelli in the early 20th century, and the Italian Archaeological Mission, which brought to Turin the tomb of the architect Kha and his wife Merit, found intact in 1906.

The collection extends from the Predynastic era through the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, with more than 40,000 objects in total and several thousand on display. Highlights include the Gallery of the Kings, with statues of pharaohs including the seated Ramesses II, the Turin King List papyrus, the Tomb of Kha with its contents, the Temple of Ellesiya from Nubia and the Book of the Dead papyri. The Turin Canon is crucial to Egyptology.

The curatorial approach is chronological and thematic, with a layout rearranged in a major renovation completed in 2015. Displays use contextual lighting, comparative cases and multimedia to explain daily life, religion and burial practice. The Gallery of the Kings, designed by Dante Ferretti, uses a dark setting with dramatic lighting to show monumental sculpture.

The building and the exhibits are conserved and studied by an in-house team, and the museum is also a research centre, publishing on excavations and papyrology. Admission is about EUR 18, with reductions for young visitors, and opening hours run Tuesday to Sunday, with Monday opening until about 2PM. Confirm at museoegizio.it or by phone on +39 011 4406903.