Human world
This section of the gallery looks at how Ancient Egyptian culture can still be found in the modern world, with its influences on architecture, films and jewellery.
Walk around Liverpool and you will notice echoes of ancient Egypt all around you. Look at the winged sun disc above the entrance to the Birkenhead tunnel. Wander down Rodney Street and see a churchyard with a pyramid! Look up high and see two sphinxes staring at each other on Ashton Street.
Sphinx on the Ashton Building (old Arts Faculty building) , University of Liverpool. © National Museums Liverpool.
People forgot how to read hieroglyphs when Christianity arrived in Egypt. For hundreds of years successive rulers vandalised ancient monuments, while others were lost in the sand.
However, Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt in 1798 and the decipherment of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 excited the western world. Ancient Egypt became known for luxury, glamour and good design. Jewellery was decorated with Egyptian patterns and buildings were modelled on Egyptian temples.
Fragments from a doorway at the palace of King Apries at Memphis (about 589-570 BC). We have reconstructed the missing fragments and coloured them to show how it was originally painted.