Gateway to a shrine, preceded by two baboons

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This delicate faience model depicts the essential elements of a shrine or entryway to a sacred space. Two baboons are placed at either side of a formal gateway, and, passing through the doorway, the inner room of a shrine is represented by two slender columns on a platform. The placement of the baboons at either side of the gateway strikingly recalls the possible original locations for the excavated baboon statue 1971.51 at the entry to the Baboon Catacombs at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in North Saqqara.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art