This one room museum opened in Luxor in 1998. Its entrance is on the Nile Corniche, a few hundred meters north of Luxor Temple, across the street from the Mina Palace Hotel and down a steep flight of stairs toward the Nile. (Wheelchair access can be found at the north end of the building.) It is open daily from 9 to 1 a.m. and from 4 to 9 p.m. The collection will not teach one about the process of mummification, but it has several interesting objects.

A small vitrine holds possible mummification tools—copper tweezers, needles, and a razor. Another holds dishes of substances used in the mummification process: natron, sawdust, various ointments, resins, and linen bandages. Four canopic jars that belonged to Wahibra Menneferu, a royal son of Dynasty 26, occupy another case, and there are faience shabti-statuettes, a boat model, and amulets. Most of the mummies in the museum are of animals: there is a mummified ram, wrapped in gilded cartonnage, and the mummies of a cat, a goose, a Nile fish, a newborn crocodile (a big mature one), an ibis and a baboon. But the most interesting items are from the burial near Dayr al-Bahari of a High Priest of Amen and General of the Army, Masaharti, of Dynasty 21. His mummy is on display, but it is the wooden coffins and coffin lids that held the mummy that are worth a careful look.

From" The Illustrated Guide to Luxor" by kent R.Weeks ,published by the American University in Cairo Press. Copyright © 2005 White Star S.p.a