Exhibition: Fascinating Mummies, Edinburgh

The Press and Journal 

For centuries, people have been fascinated by the complex rituals which surrounded death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt, especially mummification and burial.

The National Museum of Scotland, having undergone a huge multimillion-pound refurbishment, is currently hosting its first international exhibition, Fascinating Mummies.

It features treasures from two of the world’s great ancient Egyptian collections with objects dating back as far as 4000BC helping guide visitors through Egypt’s past.

Items on display have come from The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands, which has one of the world’s leading ancient Egyptian collections, with an extraordinary range of material including human and animal mummies.

There’s also a small selection from National Museums Scotland’s own collections, including mummies and coffins collected in the mid-19th century by Scottish archaeologist Alexander Henry Rhind.