Museo Egizio di Torino

Museo Egizio di Torino (Egyptian Museum of Turin) is a museum solely dedicated to Ancient Egypt. In fact, the only other museum with this single speciality is the Cairo Museum and Museo Egizio’s collection is considered one of the world’s finest.

Museo Egizio di Torino history

The Museum was founded in 1824 by King Carlo Felice of Savoy as the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Turin , better known as the Egyptian Museum, acquiring a collection of 5,628 artefacts brought together by Bernardino Drovetti, consul of France during the occupation in Egypt.

King Carlo Felice brought together the Drovetti collection with other collections including that of Donati and with other antiquities owned by the House of Savoy, thus giving life to the first Egyptian Museum in the world.

Between 1903 and 1937 the archaeological excavations conducted in Egypt by Ernesto Schiaparelli and then by Giulio Farina brought about 30,000 finds to Turin.

The Museum had an initial rearrangement of the rooms in 1908 and a second, more important one, in 1924, with the official visit of the King.

Further renovations and adaptations took place in the 1930s and at the end of the 1980s. Particularly important was the reconstruction of the rock temple of Ellesiya donated by the Egyptian government in recognition of the Italian help in saving the Nubian temples threatened by the waters of the Aswan dam. For the transfer to Turin the structure was cut into 66 blocks and then inaugurated on 4 September 1970.

From pre-dynastic artefacts to mummies and ancient tombs such as those of Kha and Merit (dated 1428-1351 BC) to three copies of the ancient Book of the Dead, Museo Egizio has an impressive and comprehensive collection of pieces from throughout the Ancient Egyptian period.

Some of the highlights of Museo Egizio include a granite sculpture of Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II (13th century BC), the reconstructions of various temples and the day-to-day objects, such as toiletry boxes.

Museo Egizio di Torino today

Today in the Museum about 6,500 archaeological finds are exhibited , but over 26,000 are deposited in the warehouses. The finds cover a period ranging from the Paleolithic to the Coptic era , i.e. the era of native Egyptian Christians.

The museum includes numerous statues, sarcophagi and grave goods, mummies, papyrus, amulets, jewels .

Getting to Museo Egizio di Torino

The closest car park to the Egyptian Museum is the Roma – San Carlo – Castello car park. There are numerous buses and trams that visitors can take, the nearest stops are Bertola and Castello. The nearest station is Porta Nuova.