Places › Museums outside Egypt
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden
Museum, Museums outside Egypt · also called RMO Leiden, National Museum of Antiquities Leiden, Leiden Egyptian museum, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Egypte
Leiden's National Museum of Antiquities has one of Europe's great Egyptian collections: reliefs from the Saqqara tomb of the general Horemheb, the Old Kingdom offering chapel of Hetepherakhty, and the tomb statues of the treasurer Maya and his wife Merit. The Temple of Taffeh stands in the central hall.
Point your camera at the signs
Signs to look for
- Falcon G5ḥr The falcon (Hor) opens Horemheb, 'Horus is in festival', on the reliefs from his tomb.
- Owl G17m The owl writes m, the middle of Horemheb's name.
- Alabaster basin W3ḥb The alabaster basin (heb, 'festival') closes Horemheb's name.
- Bread on an offering mat R4ḥtp Bread on a mat (hotep) opens the offering formula in Hetepherakhty's chapel.
Names you can find here
The story of Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden
The museum grew out of Leiden University's collection and opened to the public in 1838. Its Egyptian core came from the collection of Giovanni d'Anastasi, bought in the 1820s, which was strong in objects from Saqqara. The permanent exhibition shows more than 1,400 Egyptian objects, from the earliest times to the Christian period.
Saqqara links much of it. Horemheb built a tomb there as general of Tutankhamun's army, before he became king. Its reliefs were cut out and sold in the nineteenth century, and Leiden holds a share of them. The museum has dug at Saqqara with the Egypt Exploration Society since the 1970s and found Horemheb's tomb again in 1975 and that of Maya and Merit in 1986.
Maya served Tutankhamun and Horemheb as treasurer. His tomb statues came to Leiden in 1828 and 1829, decades before anyone knew where his tomb lay.
At Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden
Inscriptions to see
Reliefs of Horemheb
Blocks from his Saqqara tomb, among them part of the scene of Horemheb receiving gold of honour from Tutankhamun, and rows of foreign prisoners. His name and titles as general run in columns beside the figures.
Statues of Maya and Merit
A seated pair and single statues of each, life size and larger. Look for their names and titles in the columns of text on the statues.
Chapel of Hetepherakhty
The offering chapel of a Fifth Dynasty official from Saqqara, shown as a room you can walk into. Its walls repeat his name and the offering formula.
Coffins and mummies
Painted coffins decorated inside and out, in a gallery of their own. Names and short prayers run down the lids.
Temple of Taffeh
A Roman-era temple from Nubia in the central hall. It has no hieroglyphic texts.
Reading the hieroglyphs here
- Learn the three signs of Horemheb's name first, then find it on each block from his tomb.
- Inside the chapel of Hetepherakhty, photograph each wall from one side so the carving casts a shadow.
- Objects travel on loan and galleries change, so check before you go for a single relief.
Hiero Lens boxes the signs and names them, on your phone; nothing is uploaded. On worn stone, trace a sign over the photo.
Questions
Is there an Egyptian temple in Leiden?
Yes, the Temple of Taffeh, a gift from Egypt for Dutch help in the Nubian rescue campaign. It stands in the museum's central hall.
What is the best Egyptian collection in the Netherlands?
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden. It holds Saqqara reliefs and statues of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, a whole Old Kingdom chapel and papyri such as the Admonitions of Ipuwer.
Who was Horemheb?
An army commander under Tutankhamun who became the last king of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Kings were buried at Thebes, so his Saqqara tomb went unused for him.
Where it is
- Temple
- Museum
Open in OpenStreetMap · Written from published sources and not yet checked on site by our team: displays and open tombs change.