Medelhavsmuseet (The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities)

30 July 2017

After the Royal Coin Cabinet, I ventured further on to another museum. It is really easy to be museum-overdosed in Stockholm if you have nothing else better to do or nowhere else better to go. Remember - my money is scarce here. Can't visit cafes or restaurants. 

The next museum is The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities. That is a mouthful in comparison to their Swedish version - Medelhavsmuseet. Medelhav = Mediterranean. If you happen to find the name Near Eastern similar to another museum, yes, you are right! There is another museum called Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (I went in June 2017, a month before this museum). Okay, maybe you don't find it familiar, but I did confuse them both together. The Museum of Far Eastern relates to antiques from China, and Japan. Now, I realised why is it named Far East and Near East. China and Japan are definitely very far from Sweden and located very far in the east, whereas the Mediterranean is much nearer, hence Near East. Does that make sense? Because I feel smart when I come to that conclusion. Haha!

Regardless of how these names came about, both of these museums are part of the National Museums of World Culture. Including Etnografiska Museum and The Museum of World Culture. I wondered why I have not been to The Museum of World Culture, and now I know why. It is located in Gothenburg - somewhere in the far west of Sweden, about 5 hours drive from Stockholm.

The museum was first formed in 1954 when two separate institutions, the Egyptian Museum and the Cyprus Collection, were combined. The Egyptian Museum had been created in 1928 from artifacts collected in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century while the Cyprus Collection was the result of the excavations of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The Cyprus collection in the museum is the largest outside Cyprus and of great scholarly value. A new gallery of Cypriote antiquities sponsored by the A.G. Leventis Foundation and designed by White Architects was opened in January 2009. Besides Egypt and Cyprus the museum also holds collections of Greek and Roman antiquities, near eastern antiquities from Shah Tepe, Luristan bronzes and Islamic art. Source from Wikipedia.

I enjoyed this museum a lot! Lots of information on Egypt and mummies, and marble statues. 

Just to prove that I was here. A selfie with one of the attires that one can try. I tried the headgear. I don't look Egyptian enough.

I never knew the function of this until I visited a number of museums. If you see this, it means that there are no benches for you to sit in the museum. You have to take one foldable stool and carry it around with you for you to rest when you are tired.

This was the coolest section of the museum. Seeing the tombs. They even have a 3D visual for you inside the tomb. Very advanced museum. Wait, scratch that. It is Sweden. Everything IS advanced.

Check out their heavy steel door to guard all the antiques in the museum.

And this is such an amazing view. You can see it from Slussen. There are benches for you to sit on and enjoy this view. Look at how bright and sunny it is in July!