Manchester/Scotland 2025 - Manchester Museum Egyptian Collection

 

Moving on to the Egyptian Collection. There was a room dedicated to these, and I it was the first place I went in search of in the museum. We did visit all the other exhibit, but mainly just walking pass them. But we lingered here cause I have a fascination with mummies and Egyptian stuff. I recall the first real mummy I saw was at the British Museum in London. The second one was in Taichung Natural Science Museum. So here is my 3rd one. I'm turning 50 soon, and I hope I will get to visit Egypt and see the pyramids one day in my current life time! For me, there is just so much places on Earth that I want to visit and see!

I guess mummies are just coffins. And I am always visiting graves and cemetery, so I guess it's only natural that I love mummies. I don't find it frightening or eerie in any way. I find that it's just so well cared for. So much thoughts given to the dead in their culture.

I also find it strange that United Kingdom has so many mummies in their museums. I would have thought the British Museum was the only one. I guess they took back a lot from the past during their 'exploration'. Fun fact, there is an Egyptian exhibition happening from now till 31-Aug-2026 in Hong Kong museum, and I am wondering whether I should go pay it a visit. Problem is, I am only free after May, and June to August is the Typhoon season in Hong Kong.....

Back to the Manchester Museum, above are mummies for animals, maybe pets? At first I thought these were organ jars, cause they often separated out the organs of the dead and put them in separate jars. But after reading the description, and maybe by the hint of the head-likeness of the animals, I should have guess too, lol. I just find these so cute!

Of course there were also text and mention of the book of the Dead etc etc etc. I didn't spend much time reading the details as we were slight off our timezone, having just landed in the morning. But looking at these beautiful artefacts made me somehow happy :)

Look how beautiful these are. yeah, I think the southern hemisphere of the world has cooler civilisation stuff, temples and stone art like these are mind blowing. I  just feel that I'm too whitewashed with western culture and civilisation from my early education that I missed out a lot learning about these cooler ancient civilisation. 

Love the drawings on these tablets. 

Kind of reminds me of Angkor Wat and all the beautiful carvings there. It's like so much dedication was put into these things, and such a wonder that it lasted till today. There is just something about being there with these pieces that made me feel happy, being connected to another civilisation through what they have left behind. Every time I travel, I'm always learning little things here and there about different culture, different people and their different lifestyle. It's just fascinating for me. 

I leave you here with a photo of a collection of Shabtis. These are figurines that, like the Chinese who uses paper figurines, are servants one sent to the after life with the dead. Ok, maybe the Chinese have non-paper version too, aka terracotta soldiers! Lol. I hope to see those in 2026 in Xian! Hmmm, I kinda wonder, why are my travels often related to the dead? From mausoleum, to cemetery, to mummies, to catacombs! I seems to have a morbid love for the dead!