Egyptian Mummies and Eternal Life: International Exhibition Coming to Kalmar Castle in 2025

Next year, Kalmar Castle will host a unique exhibition about ancient Egyptian mummies and the belief in eternal life. The artifacts come from the Egyptian Museum in Florence and will be displayed in Sweden for the first time. The exhibition “Egyptian Mummies – A Journey to Immortality” will be open to visitors from April 18 to November 2, 2025.

Mummification has long fascinated people and inspired countless books and films, often with elements of mystery and horror. In reality, mummification reflected the ancient Egyptians’ deep conviction that death was not the end, but the beginning of a journey to eternal life. Careful preparations and complex burial rituals were required to ensure this journey could be completed.

“The exhibition deals with thoughts many of us have: ‘what happens in the afterlife’ and ‘what is the meaning of life’. In today’s society, there’s talk of uploading one’s consciousness or freezing one’s body for eternal life. Mummification shows us how these thoughts were handled in ancient Egypt,”

says Meg Nömgård, castle manager at Kalmar Castle.

The exhibition will educate visitors about mummification and embalming methods used in ancient Egypt. It will showcase burial objects and personal belongings that accompanied mummies to the grave for use in the afterlife. Visitors can see sarcophagi, busts, burial masks, and the mummies of a woman, a child, and a dog. Some of the artifacts are 4,000 years old.

Kalmar Castle will collaborate with the Mediterranean Museum, part of the National Museums of World Culture, for this exhibition. Sofia Häggman, an Egyptologist at the Mediterranean Museum and author of “Mummies – Facts, Research, Fiction,” will visit Kalmar Castle to share her expert knowledge during the exhibition period.

Exhibition Facts

• The mummification tradition spanned over 3,000 years during parts of Egypt’s Bronze and Iron Ages.
• The earliest traces of mummification date back to the Predynastic period, 5,000-3,000 BCE.
• The technique was refined and varied over time, ending when Egypt became a Roman province after Cleopatra VII’s death in 30 BCE.

For more information, visit contemporaneaprogetti.it

Source: Destination Kalmar Press Release