Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum), Turin (must see)

The first Egyptian-style exhibit arrived in Turin in 1630. It was Mensa Isiaca, a first-century altar table created in Rome for the Temple of Isis. It is made of bronze with enamel and silver inlay and covered with hieroglyphs. Inspired, King Charles Emmanuel III sent botanist and archeologist Vitaliano Donati to Egypt in 1753 to acquire more items.

Donati returned with 300 pieces recovered from Karnak and Coptos. These were the start of the Turin collection. Today, the museum houses the best collection of Egyptian antiquities after the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, including over 37,000 artifacts. It had 853,320 visitors in 2019. It is one of the most visited museums in Italy.

In 1824 King Charles Felix acquired 5,268 pieces, including 100 statues, 170 papyri, stelae, and mummies. In 1833, 1,200 more pieces were added to the museum's collection. Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli filled it with still more items by 1920. The small Temple of Ellesiya was added to the museum in the 1960s.

The Egyptian collection has been in Turin from the beginning in the building designed for it. The building was remodeled in celebration of the 2006 Winter Olympics. The main rooms were redesigned by art director and designer Dante Ferretti. A new layout of the museum was opened in 2015.

The most valuable items in the museum include The Kings Assembly of statues of kings of the new Kingdom; the Temple of Ellesyia; sarcophagi, mummies, and books of the dead; a painted fabric from 3500 BC; and a painted figure of Prince Sethherkhepshef, son of Ramses III, in a pose of worship.

The celebrated Tomb of Kha and Merit, the Bembine tablet of the Mensa Isiaca, the Turin List of Kings, the papyrus map, an erotic papyrus, and a judicial papyrus add to the list, along with three different versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead.