Walk Like an Egyptian: Wonders at the British Museum

Ancient Egypt awaits with history, adventure, and wonders at the wonderful British Museum.

Ancient Egypt has a way of capturing imaginations—especially the imaginations of Year 3 students. My daughter is deep into her Ancient Egypt term at school, learning about everything from mighty Pharaohs to mysterious hieroglyphics. They’ve been buzzing about the Pharaohs, mummification, and the powerful gods and goddesses like Ra (sun) and Anubis (death). It’s been delightful watching the kids dive into a civilisation that thrived for over 3,000 years along the banks of the Nile.

We’d love to visit the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo and see all the monuments in Luxor, that adventure will have to wait. I’m sure a lot has changed since Kenz and I last visited Egypt many moons ago. Luckily, we have the world‑class British Museum right here in London—perfect for bringing classroom learning to life. So my mom friend and I planned a special mother‑daughter outing. Our mission: to marvel at the wonders of Ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone & Other Ancient Treasures

Our journey began with the museum’s most famous artefact: the Rosetta Stone. This granodiorite stele is a true superstar, inscribed with a priestly decree in Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Ancient Greek. It was the key that unlocked 2,000 years of Egyptian history. The surrounding galleries had beautifully carved steles covered in hieroglyphics—“the god’s words”—a complex writing system of symbols, alphabets, and logograms used for monumental inscriptions. In contrast, Demotic script, a kind of shorthand hieroglyphics, handled the everyday business of ancient life.

As we wandered through statues of pharaohs and gods, we found ourselves face‑to‑face with sarcophagi, tomb fragments, and of course… mummies. The girls were equal parts fascinated and slightly spooked, which is exactly the right reaction.

The Art of Mummification at the British Museum

The galleries upstairs dive deeper into the mummification process. Here, the kids learned that preparing for the afterlife was no small task. Skilled priests removed organs, dried the body with natron salt, and wrapped it carefully in linen, tucking protective amulets between the layers. Interestingly, the earliest mummies weren’t intentionally preserved at all—they were simply dried out naturally by Egypt’s hot desert sands. Some of these prehistoric mummies are astonishingly well‑preserved, as shown through x‑rays on display.

A Day of Discovery (and Dumplings)

After an afternoon filled with pharaohs, gods, and ancient mysteries, our little explorers were hungry for lunch. We strolled over to Centre Point and celebrated Lunar New Year with a dumpling feast at Din Tai Fung—because nothing rounds off a museum day quite like dumplings. 

It was a wonderful outing.  I’m sure we’ll be back soon when the kids move on to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. For now, we’re still walking like Egyptians and feeling grateful for living in this amazing world-class city.