The exhibition "The Nile in
Pompeii", the second phase of a project that began in March at
the Egyptian Museum of Turin, opened on Tuesday in Pompeii's
Palestra Grande.
It tells the story of the spread of Egypt and its cults in
the Mediterranean, and in particular within the city of Pompeii.
The show puts a wide range of objects on display, from
trinkets dedicated to the cults of Isis and Osiris, to
furnishings and frescos from the most beautiful residences of
the time.
The show's focal point is a group of eight statues from the
15th to the 14th century B.C., on special loan from the Turin
museum, seven of which depict the solar deity Sekhmet and one
which depicts the pharoah Thutmose I.
The exhibition includes a nine-minute video on the history
of the cult of Isis, including the discovery of the temple in
Pompeii dedicated to her, which has reopened to the public for
the occasion, after having undergone six months of restoration.
The frescos in the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, one of the
best-preserved of its kind, are said to have inspired Mozart's
staging of The Magic Flute.
The tour is enhanced with special loans from the Naples
Archeological Museum, including frescoes and copies of statues,
as well as multimedia features.
"We wanted to recreate the same atmosphere that the
archaeologists saw when they discovered it in the mid-17th
century," said Pompeii Superintendent Massimo Osanna.
One of the videos in the exhibition stars Italian actor
Toni Servillo in the role of priest, and is projected in a
multimedia room set up behind the temple.
There is also a new attraction open, the House of the
Pygmies, restored after years of abandoment.
It includes a fresco of the Nile Valley that dates to the
first half of the 1st century A.D., with pygmies shown on the
shores of the river.
The project's third phase will open June 28 at the Naples
Archeological Museum with a focus on the cults and Eastern
religions that Egypt brought to the region of Campania.
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