10 secrets of Turin you would never expect

5.Turin and Ancient Egypt

In 1824 the first Egyptian Museum in history was built in Turin and today its the second most important one after the that in Cairo. Why did they build it here? What’s inside it? What about the legends surrounding it? The story of the museum dates back to centuries ago, when Bernardo Dovetti, while following Napoleon in Egypt, found lots of archeological evidences. He collected these items and offered them as a gift to Charles Felix of Sardinia. In a second moment, more items were collected by the Italian archeologist Ernesto Schiapparelli who also served as the first museum director until 1928. Inside the museum, the main attraction is the temple given by the United Arab Emirates to thank the Italian archeologists who helped during the excavations in Nubia (currently Sadan) shortly before building the Assuan dam. The statues of Ramses II and Thutmose III are also notable. In case you didn’t know, the museum counts up to 37thousand items, but only 3300 are currently on exhibition. Quite the treasure.