Il Museo Egizio di Torino, founded by Carlo Felice di Savoia in 1824 with the acquisition of the collection of the French consul in Egypt, the Piedmontese Bernardino Drovetti, and later enriched by the excavations of Ernesto Schiapparelli, is second only to that of Cairo, Egypt.
Egyptian Museum: what to see
The Egyptian Museum of Turin, like the one in Cairo, is dedicated exclusively to the art and culture of ancient Egypt. Many internationally renowned scholars, starting with the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Jean-François Champollion, who arrived in Turin in 1824, have since devoted themselves to the study of its collections.
The Egyptian Museum (properly the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities) is made up of a collection of items that have accumulated over time, to which must be added the findings made following excavations conducted in Egypt by the Italian Archaeological Mission between 1900 and 1935. At that time, the rule was that archaeological finds were divided between Egypt and the archaeological missions. The current rule stipulates that the artifacts remain in Egypt.
The museum has since been housed in the building that in the 17th century architect Guarino Guarini had built as a Jesuit school, known as the “College of Nobles”, and which in the 18th century became the seat of the Academy of Sciences.
Among the most prestigious pieces of the Egyptian Museum of Turin are the rock temple of Ellesija; the Gold Mines Papyrus; the reliefs of Djoser; the painted cloth of Gebelein; the intact tomb of Kha and Merit; the statues of the goddesses Isis and Sekhmet and that of Rameses II, discovered by Vitaliano Donati in the temple of the goddess Mut, at Karnak; the iliac table that the Savoy obtained in the 17th century from the Gonzaga, and the Royal Canon, known as the Turin Papyrus, one of the most important sources on the sequence of Egyptian rulers.
The Egyptian Museum of Turin is the most important in Italy, followed by that of Florence, and is housed in the 17th-century palace of the Academy, where the Sabauda Gallery is also located.
Egyptian Museum: visit duration
Upon purchasing the entrance ticket, each visitor will receive a video guide, a next-generation device that will offer the opportunity to choose different tour routes based on content and duration (e.g. The Masterpieces of the Egyptian Museum 120’ – Daily Life, Deir el Medina and Tomb of Kha 90’, etc.).
