Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

What is it? 

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology – set up in 1892 by eccentric traveller and diarist Amelia Edwards – is named after Flinders Petrie, tireless excavator of ancient Egypt. Where the British Museum’s Egyptology collection is strong on the big stuff, Petrie (run by University College London) is an extraordinary selection of minutiae (amulets, pottery fragments, tools, weapons, weights and measures, stone vessels, jewellery), which provide an insight into how people lived and died in the Nile Valley. Highlights include colourful tiles, carvings and frescoes from heretic pharaoh Akhenaten’s capital Tell el Amarna. The museum also has the world’s largest collection of mummy portraits from the Roman period (first to second centuries AD). 

Why go? 

To dive into one of the world’s largest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology. 

Don’t miss

We particularly love the Petrie museum’s costume collection. It includes the 5,000-year-old Tarkhan Dress (the world’s oldest woven garment), a dancer’s bead-net dress from around 2400 BCE and a suit of armour from the palace of Memphis. 

When to visit

Open Tue-Sat 1pm-5pm, Saturday 11am-5pm. 

Ticket info 

Admission is free. 

Time Out tip

While you’re in the area, you might as well wander two minutes around the corner to check out UCL’s other museum, the Grant Museum of Zoology.