Ancient Egypt & Nubia Galleries – Opens Dec. 12, 2026

As the Penn Museum’s largest renovation in its 138-year-history, transforming the 14,000-square-foot Ancient Egypt and Nubia Galleries will unveil an unprecedented experience among North American museums. The project is unfolding in two phases: ✨ Egypt Galleries: Life and Afterlife—Main Level (opens late 2026) These chronologically organized galleries will introduce visitors to daily life through professions, home life, craft production, ancient writing, and papyri manuscripts, allowing guests to explore how the ancient Egyptians lived, worked, and worshipped, as well as their vision of the Afterlife. These galleries will explain how ancient Egyptian burial practices changed over time—including artifacts related to their important preparations for eternity. On display: funerary deities and the essential elements of burial, such as decorated coffins and masks, canopic jars, and shabti figurines that served the deceased in the next world. ✨ Egypt and Nubia Galleries: Royalty and Religion—Upper Level (opens 2029) Featuring the monumental 3,000-year-old palace of Pharaoh Merenptah, whose towering 30-ft. columns will be displayed at their full height for the first time since their excavation more than 100 years ago, these galleries bring to life the original (1926) vision for the gallery space—with the help of modern engineering practices, such as reinforcing structural strength using steel tie rods. Learn more: https://www.penn.museum/on-view/galle...