Mummification Museum, Luxor

The Mummification Museum on Luxor's Corniche is the only museum in the world devoted entirely to mummification, walking you through the 70-day embalming process. A foreign adult ticket costs about 150 EGP; it opens 9 am to 5 pm (later in summer).

Luxor's small Mummification Museum is the only museum anywhere given over entirely to the craft and science of mummification. It is built into the Corniche embankment, so you walk down below river level. A single long gallery follows the 70-day process used by Egyptian priests, step by step: from death, to the removal of the internal organs into canopic jars, the drying of the body in natron, the resin and linen wrappings, the placing of amulets, and finally the funeral rites at the tomb.

The objects bring the process to life: real bronze embalming tools, carved canopic chests, a full set of shabti figures, animal mummies (among them a 6 m crocodile sacred to Sobek) and the well-preserved 21st Dynasty mummy of the priest Maserharti. Wall panels explain the religious thinking behind each stage, especially the journey of the ba and ka (the soul's mobile part and its life force) through the afterlife.

What to see

• The mummification process laid out step by step
• Bronze embalming tools
• Painted canopic chests and amulets
• The mummy of the priest Maserharti
• Animal mummies, including a giant crocodile

Visiting

• Opening hours: 9 am – 5 pm (later in summer)
• Tickets: about 150 EGP for foreign adults
• Best time: the hottest part of the afternoon, when outdoor sites are hard work
• Nearby: Luxor Temple, Karnak, Luxor Museum