NEUES MUSEUM - BERLIN
The Egyptian Collection on Berlin’s Museum Island
She doesn't look a day over a thousand, and looks very good for her age! The Neues
Museum’s most noted artifact and headliner is undoubtedly
the bust of Queen Nefertiti. Discovered during excavations by the German Oriental Society in Tell Amarna on December 6, 1912, the second most famous queen of Egypt has been on display at the museum since 1913. After Cleopatra, Nefertiti is Egypt’s
most famous babe. While no true record of the other legendary
young royal who's beauty seduced Rome’s most powerful men,
the image of Nefertiti has remained for thousands of years in permanent
make-up,
save for missing one eye, in virtual perfect condition. And like
a modern celebrity shy of paparazzi, she’s still guarded by
bodyguards.
The bust of Nefertiti is located in a corner room on
the upper floor
of the museum. While photography is allowed in the rest of the museum,
a phalanx of uniforms keep a vigilant eye for anyone trying to snap
a candid pic of the shy queen. (Perhaps for security - note to thieves,
she’s in a glass case with alarm sensors – or perhaps
they’re
worried the Egyptian’s will find out she’s in Germany
and want her back).
Located on the city’s “Museum Island” listed
as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its five great museums on a sprit
of land in the center of Berlin where the Spree River splits. Ordered
built by Prussia's King Frederick William IV and designed by Prussian
architect Friedrich August Stüler, the Neues Museum was built
between 1843 and 1855 as the second museum on the island after a Prussian
expedition
to Egypt acquired almost 1,500 items and the king's growing collection
could no longer fit into the Altes Museum. The Neues Museum was originally
the centerpiece of the museums for its extensive collection of Egyptian
artifacts, ancient Papyrus Collection, as well as Classical Antiquities
of the Romans, Pre and Early History and Dark Ages. The museum building
itself is an beautiful example of mid-nineteenth century Neo Classical
architecture.
In the bombing of Berlin from 1943 to 1945, the museum
was heavily damaged and during the East German years little was done
to repair it except for some safety measures. In 1997, British architect
David Chipperfield, along with Julian Harrap were commissioned by the
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to design and oversee the museum's
reconstruction, charged with harmoniously mixing contemporary features
of a modern museum with the original structure, leaving the traces
of the building’s history still visible.
Museums Island
Of the museums
on the Museums Island, if you’re looking for the
grand scale of antiquity, the Pergamon Museum with its indoor temple
and towering gates of Babylon beckons, check out the Pergamon Museum or the palace-like ( Bode Museum for Roman sculpture and Byzantine Art.
For a more intimate encounter with the lives of the ancients, the
Neues
Museum
allows
for close-up viewing down to the articles of everyday living. Take
your time to read of the hieroglyphic writings of the Egyptians and
look into
the faces of kings and pharoahs carved on the burial chamber sarcophagi
of Metjen, Merib and Manofer. The collection follows the development
of prehistoric and early Eurasian cultures from the Paleolithic period
to the Middle Ages from the skull of Neanderthal man to Heinrich
Schliemann’s
collection of the Trojans to the sword of Charlemagne (see Imperial Cathedral Aachen). The various
antiquity collections in the museum which were once separated are
now merged into
a seemless journey as one travels from room to room over three upper
floors and down to the basement where the larger stone tombs lie.
Visiting the Neues Museum Berlin
The
museum is open from 10am to 6 PM Monday to Wednesday and 10am to 8pm
Thursday to Sunday. Until the newness wears off, it is necessessary
to purchase a timed ticket for entry into the Neues. Tickets can
be
purchased online and
printed out or from the ticket booth around the corner from the
musuem. If particulary busy you can visit
the other museums on the island (actually you won’t really
notice its an island, more a techicality). The tickets are for
half hour segments,
though you can stay as long as you like. Adult admission price
is 12 euro, children up to 16 years are free. A ticket for all the Museums Island Museums is 18 euro. The Museum Island is located between the Hackesher
Markt and Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations in Berlin
Mitte. By city
bus take the TXL, 100 or 200 line city bus to the Lustgarten stop
next to the Berliner Dom. Get a Berlin
Card if you plan to go museum
hopping - €42.50 gets you three days of city transport travel
with Museum Island museums for free and other attraction discounts. © Bargain
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Neues
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DALI
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