Youngsters took a trip back in time to experience the wonders of Ancient Egypt.
Around 2,000 visitors turned out for the themed event at Leeds City Museum, organised in partnership with The Grammar School at Leeds (GSAL).
And the highlight for most children was coming face-to-face with the museum’s resident 3,000-year-old mummy – then making their own miniature mummies.
The free, fun-packed, We Love Ancient Egypt day even saw visitors learn how to write like an Egyptian – and dance like an Egyptian.
Children were shown how to spell their names using hieroglyphics and had their faces painted with hieroglyphic initials.
They also made cartouche bookmarks – the cartouche is an oblong, or oval, magical rope drawn to contain the hieroglyphics that spelled the name of a king or queen.
And they enjoyed a series of workshops with the Orientale Dance Company as well as a science session looking at food chains.
A tour of the ancient worlds gallery led fascinated visitors to the 3,000-year-old mummy Nesyamun, from the temple of Karnak in Thebes.
The children then watched a mummification demonstration, featuring a model mummy with removable innards, before having a go at the task themselves by mummifying little peg dolls.
Emi Kern, from Wetherby, said: “When we studied ancient Egypt at school my favourite part was learning about mummies and how the insides were taken out ready for the coffin, so it was great making a mummy.” And to the delight of the younger visitors, the “no touching the artefacts” rule was lifted in one area of the museum.
A school spokeswoman said pupils relished the chance to handle relics on the object-handling table – from Egyptian jewellery to amulets, a scarab beetle, various tools and canopic jars – containers which held the internal organs of the deceased, buried beside the mummified body.
The event was open to the public. The next family fun event at the museum, organised in partnership with GSAL, will be “We Love Leeds” on May 31.
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