Bust of Pharaoh in the Egyptian sculpture gallery, lit up.

Room 4

Egyptian sculpture

Museum Missions

Key information

Free wifi available – use a smartphone or tablet

Suitable for all ages

Room 4

Egyptian sculpture gallery

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Discover ancient Egypt using these fun family missions.

Travel back through 3,000 years of Egyptian history and come face to face with the Rosetta Stone and some of the biggest sculptures in the Museum.

Explore these sculptures and more as you look for objects and use your phone or tablet for the pose and perform missions.

Find

  • Red granite sculpture of a head with tall headpiece.

    Easy mission – Find this head of a pharaoh with a towering crown.

  • Limestone blog with crisscrossed pattern.

    Medium mission – Find this piece of stone. Can you guess what it is?

  • Lion-faced statue.

    Difficult mission – Find this goddess with the head of a lion.

  • Painted stela depicting Ptah seated on a throne inside a shrine on the left, and on the right lies an altar heaped with food offerings.

    Expert mission – Find this image of the seated god Ptah.

Perform

Find the metal rectangle hidden in the floor in front of this statue of a lion. It's the top of a lift used to bring heavy objects in and out of this room from the storerooms and tunnels below. 

Many objects in this gallery, including the Rosetta Stone, were brought here over 200 years ago from modern-day Egypt and Sudan.

Record a video of your family acting as if you're lifting an incredibly heavy stone sculpture. Use the metal rectangle of the lift as your stage.

Discuss

Written on the Rosetta Stone is a legal declaration about the young ruler Ptolemy V. It says that the priests of a temple in Memphis, Egypt, supported the king.

Ptolemy V was only a teenager when he became pharaoh. What would be the first law you would pass if you became the teenage leader of your country?

Please note that the Rosetta Stone is on display in the exhibition Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt (13 October 2022 – 19 February 2023). You can find a replica of the Rosetta Stone, on display for free in the Enlightenment Gallery (Room 1).

Look

Ancient Egyptians used writing and symbols called hieroglyphs to communicate information. They called writing 'divine words' because they believed Thoth, god of wisdom, invented writing.

Symbols can be found on many different types of ancient Egyptian objects. Look carefully around the gallery and see if you can spot these four Egyptian hieroglyphs.

  • Buzzard
  • Two reeds
  • Eye of Horus 
  • Man with hand to mouth 

Pose

Statues of Senusret III

Row of three statues of Senusret III wearing nemes, legs and arms lost but hands still present on aprons.
Take a photo posing as if you were another member of this group of statues.
Collection online

Column

Granodiorite column in the form of a papyrus bundle bearing cartouches of Amenhotep III, Merenptah and Setnakht on abacus, buds and shaft.
Stand next to one of the tall columns and stretch your arms up as high as you can. Now capture it on camera.
Collection online

Sphinx of Senusret III

Brown quartzite sphinx, head lost.
Without touching the object, take a photo of you posing beside the Sphinx as though your head completes the broken statue.
Collection online

Statue of Nenkheftka

Painted limestone statue of Nenkheftka with damage to feet.
Take a photo of your family copying the rigid pose of this statue. Make sure you all put the same foot forward.
Collection online

Choose your next Museum Mission

View all Museum Missions
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    For thousands of years the people of Central America have used fantastic creatures as powerful symbols. Explore these and more in Room 27.

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