Founded in 1824, Turin’s Museo Egizio is the oldest Egyptian museum in the world, the second in terms of value and quality of its treasures after the one in Cairo, and the eighth-most widely visited museum in Italy. It’s so well-known that in a classification drawn up by TripAdvisor, it was ranked number one among Italy’s most popular museums, ninth in Europe and fourteenth in the world. The British newspaper The Times listed it as one of the 50 best museums on the planet.

In 2006, during Turin’s Winter Olympics, the museum was re-modelled by Oscar-winning set designer Dante Ferretti. It houses more than 37,000 artefacts, from the Paleolithic to the Coptic era. Speaking about it, archaeologist and Egyptologist JeanFrançois Champollion once said: ‘the road to Memphis and Thebes passes through Turin’.

Despite its longstanding history and historic headquarters – the imposing Palazzo delle Accademia delle Scienze which dates back to the 17th century – the museum is extremely modern in terms of both its layout and immersive visitor experience. In 2015 the exhibition space was doubled following massive renovations, and is now spread over four levels, three above ground and one below, organized in chronological order with a 2.5 km of circuit. Here you’ll find mummies, tombs, papyrus sheets and everything related to ancient Egypt (included embalmed animals) from the Paleolithic to the Coptic era.