IMHOTEP SITE MUSEUM

This museum, inaugurated in April 2006 by the two First Ladies of Egypt and France, is the first of its kind to be a "site museum". It is dedicated to the site of Saqqarah, to the architect Imhotep who built the Step Pyramid, and to the French archaeologist Jean-Philippe Lauer, who devoted his entire life to the excavations.

In the first room, a sort of pronaos of the museum, King Djoser stands enthroned on a pedestal, on which the name of his architect, Imhotep, is inscribed in hieroglyphics. A 10-minute film traces the history of the site and the first stone pyramid built in 2700 BC by Imhotep, vizier, architect, physician and high priest of Ra at Heliopolis.

The main hall features a beautiful reconstruction of a wall from Djoser's symbolic palace. It is made of blue-glazed ceramic bricks. They inspired the architects of the Vaneau metro station in Paris to reproduce the same ceramic bricks. A tomb like the ones on the Saqqarah site has been reconstructed. It features the mummy of Mesenra (2297-2292 BC). A miniature statue of Imhotep can also be admired, as well as the monumental feet of a statue representing him. Particularly noteworthy is a harpoon and its snake-decorated headpiece.

The gallery on the right, entitled "Saqqara Missions", displays objects discovered during the excavations. These include a gold-covered cradle from Dynasty ³⁰, surgical instruments and a collection of cosmetic objects. Admire the delicacy of the face of the statue of the priest Akjema, who wears a fine moustache that modern young Egyptians still wear; as well as the refinement of the linen loincloth, sculpted in two reliefs, one smooth and the other coarser.

In the gallery on the left, we note the elegant limestone statue of the scribe Ptahcheses, made of protruding muscles, with a radiant complexion, wearing a woven straw hat. A polychrome bas-relief of the heads of Hathor and Amkhesempa is extraodinary in its precision, notably the delicacy of a vulture's beak. There's also a collection of limestone weapons from the Teti period, stylized as lotuses. Likewise, we are touched by the tenderness and sadness in the eyes of the Senar mummy mask.

The last room, on the right before leaving the museum, is the reconstruction of Jean-Philippe Lauer's library, which is open to the public. A few hundred metres from the museum, French excavation sites continue their work.