The coffin of Ptahirdis is one of the centerpieces of this exhibition -

Mathilde Ceilles / 20 Minutes

  • An exhibition at the Granet museum in Aix-en-Provence brings together 200 objects from ancient Egypt.

  • This exhibition, in collaboration with the Louvre, features a few nuggets, such as a sarcophagus or a mummified monitor lizard.

A papyrus covered with strange hieroglyphics that one would almost have fun deciphering.

A few meters away, the sarcophagus of a certain Ptahirdis which reveals a mummy thousands of years old.

Perhaps all that is missing is a bark from Snowy or a remark from Dupond and Dupont to believe himself with Tintin, surveying the depths of the pyramids.

However, you don't need to have the soul of an adventurer to discover the treasures of ancient Egypt, since this scene is located in the heart of Aix-en-Provence.

This weekend in fact opens at the Granet museum the exhibition “Phararon, Osiris and the Mummy”.

A rare event, in collaboration with the Louvre and other major French and European museums, which presents the entire Aix background in this area, sometimes inaccessible to the public for 25 years, alongside other objects loaned by the partner museums.

"A totally unknown heritage"

Because long before becoming famous for its calissons, Aix-en-Provence was known to house many collectors of mummies and other Egyptian curiosities which now rest behind the walls of this museum.

"This exhibition is exceptional insofar as it shows a totally unknown heritage that belongs to the city of Aix-en-Provence," says Christophe Barbotin, general curator at the department of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre museum and scientific commissioner of the exposure.

It is a very old collection, since some objects arrived in Provence during the reign of Louis XIV, before the collection was developed in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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The 200 objects on display, the oldest of which dates back to -3,500 years BC, are divided into three different themes.

“The exhibition focuses in particular on the pharaohs, the administration of which the pharaohs are the keystone,” specifies Christophe Barbotin.

The visitor will also see how hieroglyphics work and what power they give.

The exhibition also presents the deities who were worshiped by the Egyptians, foremost among which is Osiris, the God of the Dead.

The exhibition finally retraces the funeral aspect, which everyone knows.

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Mummified monitor lizard and papyrus

In the maze of the exhibition are hidden real gems unique in the world, such as this astonishing mummified monitor lizard, a piece that cannot be found anywhere else.

For the first time, the Book of the Dead is also exhibited in its entirety, 18 meters of rolls of papyrus unrolled and placed under glass to better appreciate the beauty and precision of the hieroglyphics.

Initially planned during confinement, the exhibition went through many adventures before finally being able to open its doors this weekend, until February 14.

From there to believe, as its chief curator Bruno Ely says, that the Granet museum "has conquered the curse of the pharaohs", there is only one step ...

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  • Aix en Provence

  • Exposure

  • antiquity

  • Egypt