Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

What to see at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology’s collection includes over 80,000 items displayed in three galleries.

Highlights of the museum include:

• A dress dating from 3000 BC that was excavated at Tarkhan
• Artefacts excavated from Lahun, dating from 1850–1700 BC
• A collection of mummy portrait panels dating from AD 140–160 (the period when Egypt was under Roman rule)
• Tablets with pyramid texts from Pepy I’s pyramid, dating from 2300–2181 BC
• A fragment of a relief showing Akhenaten and the rays of the sun god Aten
• A pot burial from Hememieh
• Fragments of faience tiles and inlays from Amarna
• An intricate wooden spoon showing a girl standing on a boat
• A beat net dress dating from around 2400 BC
• Displays of pottery from Meroë in Sudan, an area with more pyramids than Egypt

Like the nearby Grant Museum of Zoology (also operated by University College London), it is an interesting old-school museum with lots of exhibits packed into a relatively small space with some dark areas where you need a torch to view the exhibits and there is not a push-button interactive display in sight.

Visiting the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology is part of University College London and is located on Gower Street, just south of Euston railway station. The closest tube stations are Euston Square (a three-minute walk), Warren Street (a five-minute walk) and Goodge Street (a six-minute walk). It is a 10-minute walk from Euston railway station.

Other nearby attractions include the Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, Pollocks Toy Museum, the Foundling Museum and the British Museum.

Admission to the museum is free and it makes a good complement to the Egyptian collections at the nearby British Museum.

Allow 1–2 hours to visit the museum.