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Oriental Museum
Lunar New Year 2023 celebration at the Oriental Museum, showing red lanterns with gold tassels

Permanent Galleries

Explore the different regions of north Africa and Asia in our galleries, or visit the Silk Roads gallery, which combines works from across our collections.

Ancient Egypt

The Oriental Museum has two galleries dedicated to Ancient Egypt - the Thacker Gallery and the Wolfson Gallery.
View of display cases in the Thacker Gallery of Ancient Egypt with mummy and her coffin in the foreground and other funerary equipment in the display cases behind

China

Our China gallery is named after the distinguished politician and diplomat the Rt. Hon. Malcolm MacDonald.
View along the displays of ceramics in the MacDonald gallery

Himalayas, South Asia and Southeast Asia

Featuring an amazing array of objects ranging in date from 2,500 BCE to the 1960s, including ancient Indus Valley ceramics.
View down the length of the gallery with the Himalayan displays in front and Indian displays behind.

Japan

This gallery has been created in direct response to visitor interest in beauty and diversity of Japanese art and culture.
A man and a boy in a wheelchair look at displays of Japanese samurai weapons and armour, to the sides are displays of Buddhist art and objects relating to the tea ceremony.

Korea

The Korean collection is among the smallest in the Museum, but it is hugely varied and highly unusual in that it includes material from both South and North Korea.
View into the Korea Gallery from across the balcony showing all of the displays.

Silk Roads

Bringing together works from across our collections to tell stories of trade, travel and exchange across the continent of Asia and into Europe, all the way to Durham.
Our magnificent Chinese bed sits at the centre of the new gallery.

  

Past exhibitions

Find out more about our previous exhibitions and art installations.

Visit our Past Exhibitions page to explore more than 20 unique exhibitions.

Two action men in mountaineering gear climbing along a shelf of books.