To encourage children to explore the mysterious world of their ancient ancestors, the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has opened Egypt's first-ever children's Lego museum. Nevine El-Aref recaptures her childhood A touring exhibition that has been travelling to museums and science centres across the globe has landed a permanent home at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square. In "Secrets of the Pharaohs", Egypt's ancient monuments have been rebuilt in the basement exhibition area of the museum -- entirely in Lego. Scale models of some of the nation's best-loved ancient buildings have been refashioned in large, colourful Lego bricks and are on display at the cool-lit basement gallery. Here is the Great Sphinx sitting in front of the three Giza Pyramids; here a team of ancient builders construct a temple while artisans decorate its walls and a scribe squats with a sheaf of papers to record the scene. Here is the mask of the boy king Tutankhamun, as well as some of his funerary collection. The exhibition combines the fun of the famous Lego building blocks that everyone played with as children and the colourful and amazing history of ancient Egypt. Visitors will have the chance to learn about daily life on the banks of the River Nile in ancient Egypt. There will be opportunities to learn how to write using ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. There will also be lessons about the mysterious Egyptian rituals surrounding death and the afterlife. The Egyptian Museum's director Wafaa El-Seddik told Al-Ahram Weekly that the exhibition combines the magnificence of the original monuments with the fun of Lego. El-Seddik says the display is divided into six sections displaying different aspects of the ancient Egyptian civilisation; everyday life along the Nile; kings and their families; religious beliefs; and the afterlife, along with the many deities that were worshipped. At the end of the tour children are introduced to a small workshop where they can explore for themselves the civilisation of ancient Egypt through fabricating their own creation from Lego blocks. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, says that the purpose of the exhibition is to help Egyptian children learn about themselves and their distinguished ancestry, as well as gain a better understanding of what it means to be Egyptian. As for non-Egyptians, El-Seddik says the exhibition will be a window through which they can explore the impact of Egyptian history and culture by building their own pieces. The Lego figures are geared towards young visitors to the museum. They highlight several famous and iconic Egyptian archaeological finds. Some models are life size, such as the one of Tutankhamun, while others, like the Sphinx, are scaled down to fit inside the exhibition space. The highlights of the exhibition are the fixed creations, but there are several interactive elements that will delight children and adults alike. Puzzle games, multiple photo opportunities, and a chance to write their names in hieroglyphics are just a start. They can step into a role-play in a tacky mummy movie, get lost in a maze and, of course, get lost in their own Lego creations. Part of the fun in the exhibition is learning about how much time and how many bricks it took to create some of these fantastic models. To create Tutankhamun's mask alone, Lego artists put in more than 220 hours and used more than 25,000 bricks.
