Unearth Ancient Egypt, in Italy.

Green is once again the protagonist in the Museo Egizio: a new permanent exhibition entitled 'Egyptian Gardens: the Kitchen Garden and the Funerary Garden' can be visited on the Roof Garden.

Why is it so important to reorganize the room dedicated to Deir el-Medina?

The site is located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, and it has been perfectly preserved because no modern city has been built over it since its abandonment. Deir el-Medina was the home of a community of artisans responsible for excavating and decorating the royal tombs of the nearby Valleys of the Kings and Queens. The context is unique because it preserves the remains of an entire village, a votive area, and a necropolis with some of the most beautiful non-royal tombs in Egypt. The site is particularly important because it has provided the most significant information about daily life in ancient Egypt. It was excavated by Ernesto Schiaparelli and the Missione Archeologica Italiana between 1905 and 1909.

A new space opens today at the Museum: the textile gallery.

The Museo Egizio houses an important collection of textiles that covers a period of over 5000 years. It has a very unique array of pieces in terms of the variety and quality of materials. In this room there are more than 700 textiles on display dating to the Pharaonic period (3000 –322 BCE), for a total of 1 km of antique linen.

After consolidation and restoration works, the third floor of the Museum reopens, expanding the visitor route with a new permanent display: the Writing Gallery. An area covering one thousand square metres housing 248 artefacts provides a journey in 10 sections about the origin of ancient Egyptian writing, going back 4000 years.

Not only will hieroglyphs, along with the adventure that over the centuries led to their decipherment and the birth of Egyptology be the focus of the exhibition but also hieratic, Demotic and Coptic. Telling the story of ancient writing in its various forms and how it evolved, also means describing society, how the state functioned, as well as the role of the scribe, who was the keeper of memories of the ancient Egyptian civilisation and a holder of knowledge