Opens 18 April 2025

According to the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians, the death was not the end of life, but continued in another form in the afterlife. The soul had to reincarnate in its own body to continue living, and for this reason the body had to be best preserved.

The mummification theme has always fascinated, and the public attracted by mystery and horror, has made strange ideas about Egyptian mummies. But in reality, the funerary habits of the ancient Egyptians had as their purpose the continuation of life in the afterlife. The exhibition therefore presents the main embalming methods and the extraordinary variety of objects that accompanied the mummy in the tomb.

These are objects of funeral use exclusively, which were meant to be used by the deceased to continue living in the afterlife. But also, a series of personal effects that accompanied him on the long journey, and which had to be magically useful forever. The exhibition therefore ends with a look at earthly life, through the presentation of the deceased’s trousseau. Some of the masterpieces in the exhibition are the sarcophagus of Padimut, the bust of Sety II, the Stele of Penbu, the mummies (of a woman, of a child and of a dog), funerary masks and wonderfully preserved everyday objects made of plant fibres.

All the objects displayed come from the Egyptian Museum of Florence, which is the second in Italy after the Egyptian Museum of Turin and which is located inside the National Archaeological Museum of Florence.