Egypt

Ancient Egypt also tends to draw the crowds in the museum, with a number of artifacts from the region among the collection. This sphinx is set against a larger wall of Egyptian hieroglyphs (I can't recall offhand if the wall is a replica of an original or not, but given that it's not behind glass, odds are it's a replica).

This statue fragment of Cleopatra stands nearby.

My sister-in-law related a story some days later about one of her sons on a visit to the museum. She and my late brother were standing near this sarcophagus with their sons, talking about getting some lunch, and my nephew blurted out about how they could bear to talk about food when they were so close to a dead body.

Another thing I could never quite outgrow from childhood: a fascination with Egypt. I look at this mummy and it draws all sorts of memories to the surface.

It's probably not a good idea to do something like reading from the Book Of The Dead in here. That usually doesn't end well. You wind up getting the dead rising from the grave, Arnold Vosloo running wild, and the ten plagues of Egypt getting unleashed all over the place.

It is an odd thing... to be buried three thousand years ago and end up having your casket on view for all to see long, long after you've gone the way of the dodo.