Event: Germany - Berlin

Egyptian Museum

When:	Daily
Where:	Egyptian Museum
Costs:	€8; concessions €4; under-16s free; Thu 6pm-10pm free
Opening Hours:	Daily 10am-6pm (until 10pm Thu)

Berlin's Egyptian Museum houses objects recovered by the German Oriental Society at Amarna between 1911 and the outbreak of the First World War. The collection has been recombined after years of being split due to the division of the nation.

Amarna, in central Egypt, was the residence of King Akhenaten, established for the cult of the sun god Aten. The city enjoyed only a short period of cultural development, under the rule of Akhenaten and his wife, Nefertiti. A black granite bust of Nefertiti from 1340 BC, depicting the queen as an ageing woman, is one of the most important pieces at the museum. When it was uncovered in 1912, the bust had laid buried for 3000 years.

Another important part of the collection is the Temple Door of Kalabsha, which was given to German engineers who assisted in preserving the city of Aswan from flooding in 1963. The Kalabsha temple - 50 kilometres south of Aswan - was built around 30BC for the sun god, Mandulis. The decorations on the seven metre-high door utilise symbols to depict the power of the god and to display that power embodied in the Pharaoh.