Discovering Ancient Egypt in Leiden

Discovering Ancient Egypt has already attracted more than 100.000 visitors since its opening in October 2025. This makes the exhibition one of the biggest crowd-pullers at the National Museum of Antiquities in recent years. The exhibition tells the multifaceted story of the life, religion, and culture of the ancient Egyptians, based on the continuous stream of new discoveries and research. Discovering Ancient Egypt is open until May 3, 2026. This exhibition is included in the TOP 10 exhibitions of 2026. You do not have to travel at all to The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), at the Giza Plateau near Cairo. Have you been to Leiden yet?

Are you familiar with this issue?

It was a grand celebration in 2018 and led to a beautiful exhibition and accompanying anniversary book.

Now, in 2025 and 2026, the National Museum of Antiquities is scoring again with a blockbuster: Discovering Ancient Egypt. So don't wait too long, because the exhibition is on view until May 3, 2026. After that, these beautiful objects will disappear into storage or be returned to the original museums (e.g., the Louvre), and you will never see them together in this museum again.

 

Discovering Ancient Egypt

Discovering Ancient Egypt is back in the Netherlands! This traveling exhibition was on display in twelve cities in Japan, South Korea, and Australia starting in 2020 and was visited by more than 1.5 million visitors. After five years, the exhibition returned to the Netherlands and is on view in Leiden until May 3, 2026.

 

Mummy coffins, statues and gold jewelry

The common thread running through the exhibition narrative is the timeless fascination with ancient Egypt and the continuous stream of new discoveries and research. You will see approximately five hundred objects, including a considerable number of mummy coffins, statues, gold jewelry, colorful papyri, animal mummies, and unique manuscripts.

 

Grave gifts reunited

Discovering Ancient Egypt tells the multifaceted story of the life, religion, and culture of the ancient Egyptians. Many of the objects come from the museum's own collection and traveled the world: for years, they were only on display in popular exhibitions in Asia and Australia. Highlights include the gold funerary offerings from the tomb of General Djehoety. After their discovery, they were dispersed among various European museums. But for the first time in two hundred years, objects from the collections of the Musée du Louvre and the National Museum of Antiquities are now on display together again.

 

New discoveries about ancient culture

The fascination with ancient Egypt is not just a modern phenomenon: even in antiquity, there was reverence and admiration for the traditions and monuments of the Nile Valley . That centuries-long curiosity and a continuous stream of contemporary research and new discoveries form the common thread of Discovering Ancient Egypt. In the exhibition, specialists discuss this in short films. Their work, from geomagnetic research in the desert to meticulous restorations, offers continuous new insights.

 

Admiration through the ages

Thousands of years ago, the Egyptians themselves looked upon the culture of their predecessors with reverence and wonder. Centuries later, Arab scholars of the Middle Ages showed great interest, followed by adventurers and collectors in the nineteenth century. Therefore, in the exhibition you can view one of the oldest maps of Egypt, as well as extremely rare Arabic manuscripts and early Islamic hieroglyphic studies. Garments, drawings, and watercolors by nineteenth-century travelers such as Alexine Tinne and Willem de Famars Testas offer a personal insight into the appeal of ancient Egypt to Europeans.

 

Personal life and animal mummies

Discovering Ancient Egypt subsequently focuses on the ancient Egyptians themselves. Objects from their personal lives shed light on their way of life and thought, daily life, and beliefs. Examples include amulets, luxury jewelry, musical instruments, sandals made of woven reed, and a game box containing a formula wishing the owner good luck. There is also a remarkable collection of animal mummies. Using X-rays and CT scans, they have been studied down to the innermost details, sometimes resulting in remarkable discoveries: a large crocodile mummy turned out to contain not one, but two young crocodiles , packed together with dozens of baby crocodiles.

 

Realm of the Dead and restored mummy coffins

The final part of the exhibition focuses on the Egyptian afterlife. An impressive display features various painted mummy coffins , including a complete set of four nesting coffins containing all the 'necessities' for the deceased, such as funerary figurines, papyrus sheets with magical spells, and amulets. A number of these coffins have recently been restored, preceded by scientific research, infrared and UV photography. This revealed how they were made thousands of years ago and which pigments were used at the time to create the vibrant colors.

 

Source: RMO.nl

 

<strong> More info: </strong>

Discovering Ancient Egypt in Leiden, through May 3, 2026:

https://www.rmo.nl/tentoonstellingen/tijdelijke-tentoonstellingen/discovering-ancient-egypt/

Want to see even more animal mummies? Then visit Leeuwarden, Natuurmuseumfryslan until November 22, 2026:

https://natuurmuseumfryslan.nl/programma/mummie-mysteries/

Previous museum blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/made-in-holland/