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 finds from ancient Egypt including mummies, papyri, hieroglyphic inscriptions, the Book of the Dead (a papyrus of about 30 pages containing formulas to accompany the deceased to 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 in time finds found around Rome.

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