Not only is it one of the oldest and most well-documented civilizations on Earth, but also it's the most mysterious one. 

There are a couple of galleries devoted to ancient Egypt and its impressive 3000-year history, but the main one is on the first floor.    

The gallery's doors open at 10 am, so people start lining up way ahead of time.

As soon as the doors opened, the first thing people saw was the Rosetta Stone.

But what is the Rosetta Stone and why is it so important to ancient Egypt?

"The Rosetta Stone carries an inscription in different languages which helped decipher the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic script. It is the only surviving fragment of a larger stone slab (stela) recording a decree on 27 March, 196 BC. At the top the decree was written in hieroglyphs, the traditional script of Egyptian monuments, then already 3000 years old. In the middle the same decree was written in Demotic, the everyday script of literate Egyptians, and at the bottom in Greek, the language used by the government. The granodiorite stela was placed in a temple, probably in the city of Sais near Rashid (Rosetta)." - from the museum's information sign. 

The stone was discovered by French troops in 1799, but the British shortly took it over as a result of the Treaty of Alexandria in 1801. The stone was then taken to the British Museum in 1802, and in 25 years it was finally deciphered. The Rosetta Stone brought unprecedented value to the world's history as it allowed us to read Egyptian hieroglyphs and, therefore, discover the fascinating history and culture of ancient Egypt.

A French scientific expedition of 1798 and the discovery of the Rosetta Stone founded a separate scientific discipline called Egyptology. A defeat of Napoleon and his army essentially ended a French exploration of Egypt while the British whose interest was sparked by recent findings continued their discovery and apparently succeeded. The British Museum opened this gallery in 1834, and in 1854 it was exclusively devoted to ancient Egypt.

Back in the day, Egypt was ruled by Ottomans, and be it the lack of interest in Egyptian history or the persuading power of the British Crown, for the next almost 150 years British managed to secure surprisingly broad permission to carry out numerous excavations in Egypt and collect antiquities, many of which ended up in the British Museum. 

The collection continued well until the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and even beyond that moment before Egypt issued the Law of the Protection of Antiquities in 1983 which declared that "all antiquities are strictly regulated and considered to be the property of the State".

The question I ask myself is this: how ethical was it for the British Empire to essentially steal (even officially) artifacts from tombs and historical sites of ancient Egypt? I guess the answer is "It depends". After the financial crisis of 2008-2009 and the revolution of 2011, the looting of ancient sites in Egypt almost skyrocketed, since many people turned to ancient relics as a way to survive. 

I was deeply touched by the article in June 2016's issue of National Geographic magazine How Tomb Raiders Are Stealing Our History as well as the story told by my colleague who is originally from Jordan about how ISIS publicly destroyed ancient sites in Syria and Iraq. The idea is that developed countries such as the UK or the US essentially rescue antiquities from unstable countries like Egypt, Syria and Iraq that would have been destroyed otherwise even if it means buying antiquities from looters. The caveat though is that this kind of trade further encourages looting and even helps finance terrorists like ISIS.

And it's very very sad. But let me get back to the Egyptian Gallery at the British Museum. As a matter of fact, it's not only the Rosetta Stone that attracts people from all over the world. Let's take a look at other well-known antiquities that are on display.

Bust of King Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent, was the 9th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. "His reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity and artistic splendour when Egypt reached the peak of its artistic and international power (Wikipedia)."

Head and arm of a statue of Amenhotep III. The body is still at Karnak, a temple complex in Luxor, Egypt.

King Amenhotep III as a lion.

The goddess of Sekhmet, a lion goddess and a daughter of the sun god Ra. "The myth recounts how she almost obliterated humankind for conspiring against her father's rule. She was associated with destruction and plague, but her powers could also be invoked for healing (from the information sign at the British Museum)."

False door of Kahab and Statue of Nenkhefetka.

Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II. "In medieval times, it was used as a ritual bath in the Attarin Mosque at Alexandria, formerly the Church of St. Athanasius (from the museum's information sign)."

Mummy-boards.