Egypt Museum ancient Egypt art culture and history

The White Chapel of Senwosret I

The White Chapel of Pharaoh Senwosret I, also known as the Jubilee Chapel of Senwosret I, was built during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. During the New Kingdom, it was dismantled and used as filling for the Third Pylon of Karnak’s temple in the Amun-Re Precinct. The dismantled fragments were discovered inside the Third Pylon of Karnak’s...

Tile of a bound Nubian

This glazed tile of a Nubian is from the remnants of a palace built by Ramesses III in Tell el-Yahudiyeh. This tile is only surviving in shards and has lost most of its former colour and gloss. Tell el Yahudiyeh is a city in Egypt’s Eastern Delta. The site has remnants dating from the Second...

Silver diadem

This silver diadem was thought to have come from Nubkheperre Intef’s Dra’ Abu el-Naga tomb. Nubkheperre Intef (also known as Antef, Inyotef, and Intef VI) was an Egyptian ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned in Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was divided into rival dynasties, including the Hyksos in...

Nefertiti Statue

This limestone striding figure of Nefertiti was unearthed in the archaeological remnants of the sculptor Thutmose’s workshop, within the remains of the same room (Amarna House P 47.02. Room 19) where the famous bust of the queen was discovered in 1912 by Ludwig Borchardt, at Tel el-Amarna. The figure was discovered in several fragments and...

Nebseni & Baket

This family portrait features Nebseni, chief of the royal stables alongside his wife Baket, and their son named Imen, whose face has sadly been destroyed, but it appears the boy stands before an altar. Finely carved from limestone, the piece measures at 87cm tall and 35cm wide, with a depth of 33.5cm. It was discovered...

Side-lock of Youth

The term “side lock of youth” is not totally true, as the “side lock” is typically plaited hair rather than “a lock”, with the end twisted into a spiral. In Middle Kingdom portrayals, the end is rolled forward, rather like a lone ‘pigtail’. Alas, throughout history and even in modern times, a “lock of hair”...

Kushite King

This bronze statuette depicts a king of Kushite origin who ruled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period. The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV, alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty, the Kushite Empire, or the Napatans after their city Napata, was Egypt’s final dynasty...

Nubkheperre Intef

Nubkheperre Intef VI (also known as Antef, Inyotef, and Intef VI) was an Egyptian monarch of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned in Thebes during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was divided into rival dynasties, including the Hyksos in Lower Egypt. Nubkheperre Intef’s tomb was eventually discovered by early Egyptologists about 1881, but...

Early Period Skeleton

Human skeleton, likely dating from the 1st Dynasty, buried within a reed basket. Discovered at Tarkhan. This human skeleton of an adult was discovered in Tarkhan, laying in a fetus pose in a cane basket. Tarkhan is an ancient Egyptian necropolis located on the Nile’s west bank, approximately 50 km south of Cairo. Flinders Petrie...

Fragment of a Queen

This white limestone relief fragment shows an unidentified queen clutching a thick usekh collar in her raised left hand. Dressed in a translucent pleated garment with a headdress ornamented with a double uraei, cow horns, double plume and sun disc in the centre, the queen has divine status. The plumes are streaked with blue, brown,...