Hurghada's antiquities museum displays Greek and Roman terracotta figures
Museum object labels describe small, brightly coloured clay figures, most of them women, alongside gods such as Isis and Serapis and miniature houses, temples and pottery lamps.
6 November 2026
Hurghada's antiquities museum holds a collection of terracotta figures — small statues of fired clay — from the Greek and Roman periods in Egypt. The descriptions on the museum's object labels present them as slender and finely detailed, with distinct hairstyles and bright colours, made from local clay and small and inexpensive to produce.
Most of the figures depict women and young women in pleated, many-folded clothing, alongside men, children and animals. Others represent gods including Harpocrates, Isis and Serapis, or the faces of Ptolemaic kings and queens. The collection also holds detailed models of houses and temples and everyday objects such as pottery lamps. Some pieces were shaped by hand and others pressed in moulds, with separate parts formed and then fixed to the main body.
Terracotta figures began to be made in Egypt under Greek influence in the sixth century BC, and Naucratis — in what is now the Abu Qir area of Alexandria — was one of the main early centres. Production reached its peak in the Hellenistic period, particularly the fourth century BC, when Alexandria and Fayoum were important centres of manufacture.
The museum opened in January 2020 and was the first museum the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry built in partnership with the private sector. It holds thousands of objects from different periods, along with a tourist market and a theatre for arts and heritage events.