Guid of th Britis Museu

Agustin Montenegr, Marí Candelari Corre Urqu Sofi Donat. Opening dates and times 1

Saturday to Thursday: 10 am to 5:30 pm.

Friday: 10 am to 8:30 pm.

CLOSED AT CHRISTMAS AND AT NEW YEAR. Free entrance!

advance booking is only required for groups of 10 or more. “The unmissable from Part 1” 2 The King Ramesses II Katebet Mummy

From about 1250 BC. Is the largest Egyptian sculpture The mummy room located in the Egyptian It is a part of a bigger stone which was in the . It’s area is another of the most surprising prosperous reign lasted almost carved in 196 B.C. It has the same places to see in the British Museum in message in three different languages, 67 years. It's the upper part of a statue, one of a pair that flanked which one of the most fascinating pieces in hieroglyphics, demotic and Greek. It a gate in the king's mortuary this room is the Katebet Mummy. helped archeologists work out the temple (the 'Ramesseum'). The The mummy is wrapped in layers of linen, different systems of Egyptian writing, statue was carved from one has a cardboard mask painted in gold, and because they knew one of the languages block, quarried at Aswan almost two wooden arms with various bracelets and they figured out the others. 124 miles (200km) further and rings. Location: Room 4 in the Ancient Egypt south. Roughly shaped and Location: Room 63 of the Ancient Egypt area. weighing some 20 tonnes. zone. “The unmissable from Ancient Egypt Part 2” 3 King Amenhotep III Cartonnage mummy-mask of Satdjehuty Limestone list of Egyptian rulers

Colossal granite head of King Amenhotep III, from Karnak (Thebes), Egypt, about 1370 BC. Mummy mask, Egypt, about 1500 BC. List of kings (detail), from Abydos, King Amenhotep III commissioned Cartonnage mummy-mask of Satdjehuty: on Egypt, about 1270 BC. numerous statues of himself, this female mask, gold leaf not only covers This list of Egyptian rulers comes especially for his temples in Thebes, the woman's face, but also her huge collar from a temple of King Ramesses II. then Egypt's capital. The complete necklace and the vulture-headdress that Monumental lists of past kings sculpture showed him striding. This embrace the front and sides of her served to express the living ruler's and a slightly smaller colossus voluminous, lapis lazuli-coloured wig. There legitimacy. The kings are flanked a doorway in the temple of are two columns of hieroglyphic text on the represented by their throne names, Mut in Karnak. chest written in oval 'cartouches'. 4 Black granite head of queen or deity Statue of Sobekemsaf.

Egypt's political integrity is undermined by a rapid succession of weak rulers, who lose much of their power to the leaders of Canaanite settlers – the Hyksos. Figure, Sa el-Hagar, Third Intermediate, 18th Dynasty. Black granite head: from lifesize figure of a queen or deity, wearing long striated wig, and with twin-coiled uraeus on brow. 5 Statue of Senwosret III. Eye Amulet

Egypt is reunited under a long succession of powerful kings, who bring a golden age that will long be remembered by later generations.

Amulet, Egypt, Third Intermediate, 26th Dynasty. Glazed composition 'wedjat' eye amulet. Its basic design is the eye and eyebrow of the lanner falcon, the bird form adopted by the celestial creator god Horus, whose right and left eyes were the sun and moon respectively. 6 Cat mummies Stela of Intef.

Cat mummies, Egypt 30BC (after). Animals associated with deities were regularly The kingdom falls apart and power mummified in the later periods of Egyptian history. The shifts from the court to provincial cat is associated with the goddess Bastet, whose cult elites, with open conflicts erupting. centre was at Bubastis in the Delta, but there were other feline deities elsewhere in Egypt. Battlefield Palette Limestone false door of 7 Ptahshepses.

Battlefield Palette, from Abydos, Egypt, about 3150 BC To obtain the blessings of the gods, regional rulers donated decorated ceremonial palettes to the temples for use in This is the first great period of preparing cosmetics used to dress and revitalise the god's Egyptian history, when it's kings – statues. The front of this palette has the remnants of the bowl the pharaohs – are buried in where the cosmetics were mixed. The carving on this large palette shows the efforts being made on behalf of the gods to monumental pyramids. protect the world from chaos and disorder, as they saw it. Ivory label for King Den's sandals Ram sphinx of Taharqo. 8

Ivory label for King Den's sandals, from Abydos, Egypt, about 2985 BC The figure holding a mace on this hippopotamus ivory label is King Den, shown here about to strike a Bedouin representative with a mace. The king's name is written before him. He wears a bull's tail, symbolic of fertility and ferocious power. Instead of a crown, however, King Renewed political fragmentation Den wears an archaic version of a royal headcloth, with the rearing allows Egypt to be invaded by its neck and head of a royal uraeus cobra at his forehead. The reverse side southern neighbour and former colony, of the label bears an incised picture of a pair of sandals, indicating that the kingdom of Kush. the label was probably attached to a box containing the king's footwear. 10 Colossal scarab beetle. Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibra.

Alexander the Great’s conquers Egypt and the Egypt's independence is restored but rest of the Persian empire, heralding centuries of twice cut short by Persian rule – the Greek and then Roman rule, which ultimately second invasion causing the fall of sees Christianity replace the native religion. the last true pharaoh. Thanks for visiting us!

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