Gregorian Egyptian Museum

The Gregorian Egyptian Museum was founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839 and is part of the Vatican Museums. It was designed by Luigi Ungarelli, one of the first Italian Egyptologists and houses a vast collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts including mummies, papyri, hieroglyphic inscriptions, the Book of the Dead (a 30-page papyrus containing formulae to accompany the deceased into the afterlife) and the Grassi Collection.

The treasures contained in the museum are part of the papal collection that began in the seventeenth century to which were added over time finds found around Rome.

The museum is divided into 9 rooms: most of the material comes from Hadrian’s Villa, in Tivoli, while the last two rooms house works from ancient Mesopotamia and Assyria.