Each year, the NGV puts on a Winter Masterpieces Show, sourcing exhibits from galleries and museums around the world. I went to their Picasso exhibition in 2022 and also Van Gogh in 2017. When they announced that this year’s exhibition would be Pharaoh—ancient Egyptian artifacts, I knew I had to go and see it. Like the Picasso exhibition, this one took over the whole of the ground floor and was separated into two parts. I decided to go to Pharaoh on Friday after my physiotherapy appointment, which would get me into the gallery at about 11:30 am, which was when the free introductory talk started, so my plan was to go to that, see the first section, have lunch, and then see the second section. I approached the Picasso exhibition in a similar way, although I didn’t go to an introductory talk for that one. If you want to take your time, and you have the whole day, I would recommend taking the lunch break. Both times, I’ve purchased the audio guide, and I highly recommend doing this. They give an excellent background to the cultural context as well as more detailed information on select items. For me, they provide a much richer experience than I could have had if I had relied only on the written information in the rooms, and I will definitely buy them for future exhibitions. The audio guide costs $6, and this one was two hours long. If you have the audio guide, you can probably skip the introductory talk.

Pharoah is an exhibition of more than 500 Egyptian objects from the British Museum, dating from the First Dynasty (c. 3000 BCE) to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. The exhibition is designed to be an immersive experience with projections, lighting effects, and an ambient soundscape. As you move through the rooms, the lighting, material, and architectural forms are designed to suggest movement from pre-dawn through morning, afternoon, and night. Part 1 of the exhibition has two rooms: Egypt, land of the Pharaohs and Born of the Gods. The craftsmanship on the items is amazing.

After seeing these two rooms, I took a break for lunch. I decided to eat at the first floor tea room and had sandwiches and a glass of rose while sitting at the bar overlooking the atrium. All the kids and adults playing in the waterfall entertained me while I waited for my food. One little girl put her whole back up against it, and many adults couldn’t resist sticking their hands into the water as they walked past.

After refuelling and resting my legs, I was ready to tackle part II of the exhibition. This is a much larger section and has five rooms. The first two rooms—The King as High Priest and Entering a Temple, are focused on the religious aspects of the Pharaoh’s role. The second of these is designed to give you the feeling of walking into a temple. These rooms were followed by Royal Life and ancient Egyptian jewellery; Ruling Egypt, which looked at the role of scribes, priests and craftsmen; Egypt and the World Beyond, which covered diplomacy; and An Eternal Life, which looks at burials and eternal life.

Can you tell I loved this exhibition? It was a good way to spend my last day on my own. I usually do these things on my own because I like to go at my own pace, and I hate to feel like I have to rush through because the people I’m with will be getting bored.