Top of the Pyramid: The Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Civilization

On July 17, 2024, the fourth exhibition Series of Arts and Culture Relics — “A Dialogue with the World”  was grandly opened in the People’s Square with the topic of “Top of the Pyramid: the Civilization of Ancient Egyptian Exhibition”. The exhibition will open to the public on July 19 and run for nearly 13 months until August 17, 2025, which is jointly organized by the Shanghai Museum and the Egyptian Supreme Council of Cultural Relics, under the guidance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Relics, and with special support from the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Administration and Shanghai Radio and Television,

At the opening ceremony, Chu Xiaobo, member of the Party Leadership Group of Shanghai Culture and Tourism Administration and director of Shanghai Museum, introduced the exhibition. “Top of the Pyramid: the Civilization of Ancient Egyptian Exhibition”  will be the largest in the world and the highest level of ancient Egyptian cultural relics exhibition in Asia, and also the first time that the Chinese official museum and the Egyptian government cooperate to fully reveal the ancient Egyptian civilization and its latest archaeological discoveries.

In Conjunction with the exhibition, which is the largest special exhibition in the history of the Shanghai Museum, the Shanghai Museum will transform the three exhibition halls on the first floor of the People’s Square Pavilion. In the exhibition space with a total area of 3,000 square meters, the exhibition narrative, cultural relics display and digital technology will create a unique and immersive experience for visitors. The exhibition brings together 492 groups of 788 pieces of precious cultural relics from different periods of ancient Egyptian civilization, which are selected from seven key Egyptian museums such as the Egyptian National Museum, Luxor Museum, and Suez Museum, and the latest archaeological discoveries in the Saqqara area, of which more than 95% of the cultural relics are coming to Asia for the first time, jointly revealing the face of ancient Egyptian civilization for the audience.

 In line with the theme of the exhibition, the Cultural Creation of Shanghai Museum will cover the immersive exhibition experience inside and outside the exhibition hall. The cultural and creative shop on the first floor will welcome a comprehensive renovation. The selection of desert and rock colors, combined with iconic elements such as hieroglyphics and line murals are arranged, making people feel as if they are in ancient Egypt with bright civilization. On Blogpost to focus on nearly 100 key exhibit elements for multiple development, will be around the classic Egyptian cultural elements to launch more than 1,000 themed cultural and creative products. On July 19, Shanghai Expo will launch nearly 600 cultural and creative products, including five series of “Cute God Guardian”, “God belief”, “sacred symbol”, “pictographic password” and “Egyptian scenery”, covering clothing and shoes matching, 3C digital, life and home, fashion play pieces, accessories, stationery, cold drinks and other categories as well as customized products. For the first time, the Expo will launch a series of in-depth hand-making experiences, including cultural relic restoration necklace beaded experience, blue lotus and papyrus Mosaic collage experience, ancient Egyptian style fragrance workshop, ancient Egyptian aromatherapy plaster workshop, ancient Egyptian MOE God cream glue hand-making experience, and invite visitors to “move their eyes, brains, and hands” during the exhibition to make their own Egyptian cultural souvenirs.