Ancient Egypt is renowned for its rich and diverse collection of artifacts, which provide valuable insights into the civilization’s history, culture, and daily life. These are just a few examples of the vast array of artifacts that have been unearthed in Ancient Egypt. They provide invaluable insights into the beliefs, practices, and achievements of this remarkable civilization.
Amongst Egypt’s most enduring gods stands Anubis, the jackal-headed guardian of tombs and guide of souls. His origins reach deep into Egypt’s early history; before Osiris rose as lord of the afterlife, it was Anubis who presided over the dead, wrapping them in sacred linen and weighing their hearts against the feather of Ma’at. He...
On the desert’s edge, where the cultivated fields of the Faiyum oasis melt into the barren sands, lies the site of Medinet Gurob. In antiquity, this region was part of the land known as Shedet, the great marshland capital the Greeks would later call Crocodilopolis. Close by rose the pyramid town of Lahun, gateway to...
Diminutive in scale yet dazzling in presence, this statuette portrays Lady Mi, a courtly figure of the reign of Amenhotep III. Carved from wood and once richly embellished with gold leaf and inlays, she wears a heavy wig and broad earrings, fashionably in step with the royal court of her day. Unlike the eternal youth...
High upon the walls of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos lies a curious carving that has sparked endless wonder. To the casual eye, the shapes appear astonishingly familiar to the modern world; depicting what appears to be a helicopter, a submarine, and even a tank, yet these images were etched more than three...
This limestone head shows a woman with a hooked nose, curved nostrils, pointed chin and almond-shaped eyes; features strikingly close to those seen on coin portraits of Cleopatra VII. The hair is styled in the “melon” coiffure, drawn back into a plaited knot, with two ringlets falling by the ears. The ears are pierced for...
Among the windswept cliffs of the Valley of the Queens lies the shattered splendour of one of Egypt’s most magnificent tombs. It belonged to Nefertari, Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, the pharaoh who would come to be known as “the Great”. Revered not only for her beauty but for her wisdom and influence at...
In the mortuary temple of Ramesses II known as the Ramesseum at Thebes, the walls are alive with scenes not merely of conquest, but of sustenance, renewal, and divine favour. Among these reliefs is a particularly charming composition in which the king appears not once, but twice, in the embrace of a sacred tree. To...
Dating from the first quarter of the 2nd century A.D., this piece depicting a woman’s head and chest section, is what remains of a cartonnage coffin, which would have been fitted over her mummy prior to burial. The woman has black curled or tousled hair with a flower crown garland adorning her head. She is...
The Book of the Dead of Nakht is one of the most beautifully preserved and spiritually rich funerary papyri to survive from Ancient Egypt’s New Kingdom. Dating to the early 18th Dynasty, around 1400 B.C., it was created for Nakht, a scribe and astronomer of the Temple of Amun at Karnak, who held esteemed religious...
The faïence mask of Hathor was discovered in what is now known as Timna Valley Park, in the southern Aravah (Arabah) desert (Wādī ʿArabah), about 25 km north of modern Eilat. It comes from an Egyptian-style shrine erected near the great copper mines worked during the Late Bronze Age. Hathor, revered as the radiant “Lady...
