Animal mummies around the world

If you think there are only Pharaoh’s treasures and ancient human mummies within the walls of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, think again. Wait until you see what the Egyptians did to lavish attention on their pets.

Millions of animals were mummified in ancient Egypt. Initially the ancient Egyptians started mummifying only their cherished pets, but the practice soon became more common and wild animals were mummified for another sacred purpose. You’d be astounded by the number – the falcon galleries alone contain 6 million.

Museum Secrets premieres January 6th, and in our episode of Museum Secrets: Inside Cairo’s Egyptian Museum we reveal which animals were mummified and why and we take our viewers into tunnels with burial chambers pilled high with animal mummies.

During production we discovered some amazing animal mummy collections at museums around the world. Take a look at our map and click on the red markers for information about each museum’s collection.

Do you have any recommendations for animal mummy collections at other museums?
Please add a note in the comment section below and I’ll add them to our map!