Housed in the former visitors centre on Luxor’s corniche, the Mummification Museum has well-presented exhibits explaining the art of mummification. The museum is small and some may find the entrance fee overpriced. Also, although it should be open throughout the day, a lack of visitors means that it sometimes closes for several hours after midday.
On display are the well-preserved mummy of a 21st-dynasty high priest of Amun, Maserharti, and a host of mummified animals. Vitrines show the tools and materials used in the mummification process – check out the small spoon and metal spatula used for scraping the brain out of the skull. Several artefacts that were crucial to the mummy’s journey to the afterlife have also been included, as well as some picturesque painted coffins. Presiding over the entrance is a beautiful little statue of the jackal god, Anubis, the god of embalming who helped Isis turn her brother-husband Osiris into the first mummy.