Louvre, Paris

Museum, Museums outside Egypt · also called Musée du Louvre, Louvre Egyptian Antiquities, Département des Antiquités égyptiennes, Louvre Egyptian collection

The Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities, mostly in the Sully wing, holds a whole Old Kingdom tomb chapel, the cartouches of several kings on one sphinx and a painted stela you can read sign by sign. Champollion himself was its first curator.

The department was founded in 1826, four years after Champollion's decipherment, and he arranged its first rooms. Its galleries follow two routes. One is by theme, with daily life, writing and burial. The other is by period. The theme route has cases on scribes and writing tools, a good start before the big inscriptions.

Old Kingdom pieces are the best for beginners. Their signs are large, carefully cut and often painted. The offering lists on early stelae name bread, beer, linen and oils with a small picture after each word, so you can guess the meaning before you read it.

The Louvre is very large and very crowded. The Egyptian rooms are quieter, though galleries close in rotation for staff and works, and objects go out on loan. Check on the museum's website which rooms are open before you go.

Inscriptions to see

Great Sphinx of Tanis

A granite sphinx in the crypt of the Sully wing. Several later kings carved their names on it, among them Ramesses II, Merneptah and Shoshenq I.

Mastaba chapel of Akhethetep

A complete Old Kingdom offering chapel from Saqqara, rebuilt inside the museum. Walk in and read the offering scenes and the owner's name around the doorway.

Stela of Nefertiabet

A painted slab from Giza, probably from the reign of Khufu. A princess sits at a table of bread beside a neat grid of offerings, each named in colour.

Chamber of the Ancestors

Blocks from Karnak showing Thutmose III before rows of earlier kings, each with a cartouche.

Seated Scribe

The famous painted scribe from Saqqara, whose name is lost.

Dendera zodiac

A carved ceiling from a roof chapel of the Dendera temple, with stars, gods and zodiac signs.

Names you can find here

Signs to look for

Sun over a mountain N27ꜣḫt The sun over a mountain (akhet) opens Akhethetep's name on his chapel.
Bread on an offering mat R4ḥtp Bread on a mat (hotep) ends Akhethetep's name and opens the offering formula on its walls.
Three fox skins F31ms Three fox skins (mes) in Ramesses' cartouche on the Tanis sphinx.
Conical loaf X8di The conical loaf (di, 'give') in the offering formula on Old Kingdom stelae.
Cartouche V10 Rows of cartouches name the ancestors of Thutmose III in the Karnak chamber.

Reading the hieroglyphs here

Start in the Sully crypt with the Tanis sphinx.
In the Akhethetep chapel the light is low. Photograph a wall square-on and trace any worn sign over the photo.
The live camera boxes painted Old Kingdom signs well; hold the phone steady.

Point your camera at a wall Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.

Questions

Where is the Egyptian section in the Louvre?

Mostly in the Sully wing, from the crypt with the Tanis sphinx up through two floors. Later Coptic works are in the Denon wing.

Did Champollion work at the Louvre?

Yes. He became the first curator of its Egyptian department in 1826 and set out its first rooms.

Does the Seated Scribe have hieroglyphs?

The statue itself has no surviving inscription, so his name is unknown. He came from a tomb at Saqqara.

Where it is

Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.