Ancient Egypt in Shanghai: 100-day countdown, 168-hour finale

Shanghai Museum’s Top of the Pyramids crossed two million visitors since opening, and entered a public 100-day countdown toward closing.

The last stretch—including extended overnight hours—treats the loan not as a fading blockbuster but as a city ritual of looking before the crates leave.

Visitors visit the statue of Akhenaten at the Shanghai Museum on July 19, 2024. Photo by Zhu Weihui, a reporter

Starting from May 10, the exhibition will officially enter the 100-day countdown. During the next three months of the exhibition, the Shanghai Museum will launch a variety of themed promotion activities in Shanghai and even across the country through online and offline platforms, including the "Pharaoh's Search for Intangible Cultural Heritage" national series of activities, daily updates of the "Pharaoh's Diary" on social media, cultural and creative product discounts, "168-hour continuous opening" and other extended opening activities, holding musicals such as "Journey of the Dead: The Dog and the Boy" and other art activities, and publishing exhibition books and theme documentaries for the public.

Shanghai Expo press conference

From July 1, the summer vacation begins, until August 17, when the exhibition closes, night sessions will be extended until 21:00 every day except Monday. What is particularly worth looking forward to is that in the last week of the exhibition, the Shanghai Museum's Egypt exhibition will open the "Sleepless Night" mode, inviting visitors to participate in the "7×24 hours non-closing" Egypt exhibition viewing experience. There is no precedent for museums around the world to be open for 168 hours continuously, and this move will set a new world record.

The "Pharaohs Searching for Intangible Cultural Heritage" event will visit Chengdu, Xi'an, Kaifeng, Hangzhou and Nanjing from May 8 to June 15, and finally return to the East Hall of the Shanghai Museum. The event will be integrated with the local Chinese intangible cultural heritage, and a "Ancient Egyptian Civilization Exhibition" theme car will tour the prosperous areas of the landing city, creating a journey of the Pharaoh's traditional Chinese culture through the collision of Chinese and Western cultures, creative video shooting, and the sale of cultural and creative products.

The "Pharaoh's Search for Intangible Cultural Heritage" event was successfully held at the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu on May 8

On May 8, the first stop of "Pharaoh's Search for Intangible Cultural Heritage" was successfully landed at the Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu.

At the end of the exhibition, the Shanghai Museum will launch a themed book, revealing the on-stage and behind-the-scenes of this phenomenal exhibition to the public through a large number of interesting stories and interviews. The Shanghai Museum is also shooting and producing a nearly one-hour high-definition documentary about this exhibition, which is planned to be presented after the exhibition ends.

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