The Egyptian Museum is one of the sections of the Vatican Museums in Rome. The collection includes statues brought to Rome by the Roman emperors and later works of art collected by the popes. There are nine rooms, with mummies, sarcophagi, statues and all sorts of utensils.
Gregorian Egyptian Museum Vatican Rome
Address, opening hours and entrance fee
Address, opening hours and admission price are those of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel. When one walks up the Scala Simonetti within the Vatican Museums, one arrives at the entrance to the Egyptian Museum. The official name of this museum is Museo Gregoriano Egizio.
History Egyptian Museum Vatican
The Egyptian Museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839. On display here are statues brought to Rome by the Emperors and other works of art collected by the Popes until the 18th century. The museum is divided into nine rooms.
The Collection
Room 1: Here are mainly objects and monuments with inscriptions. The memorial needles, statues, etc. date back to the beginning of Christianity.
Room 2: In this room one can admire objects that belonged to the funeral cult in ancient Egypt.
Room 3: In the third room there are statues taken from the Villa Adriana. It is somewhat of a reconstruction of the Serapeum of this villa, which one can visit in Tivoli near Rome. A Serapeum is a temple dedicated to the ancient Egyptian God Serapis.
Room 4: The objects in this room were not made in Egypt but in Rome itself. They are copies of statues and bas-reliefs, which were placed at sanctuaries in imperial times.
Room 5: Here one can see works of art found in Rome and the surrounding area, but made in Egypt. On the so-called Terrazza dell’Emiciclo you can see an extensive collection of sarcophagi, mostly dating from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, although there are also older ones.
Room 6: The sixth room is dedicated to bronze statuettes, dating from the 10th to the 4th century BC.
Room 7: Room VII highlights two important cities, Egyptian Alexandria and Syrian Palmyra. The objects on display are from the Greek-Roman period (4th to 2nd century BC).
Room 8: On display here are utensils and jewelry from Mesopatamia and the region now divided between Syria and Palestine. The vases, weapons, knives etc. are between 3000 and 5000 years old.
Room 9: This last room is divided into four sections. Each section deals with reliefs from the palace of one particular Assyrian dignitary.