The Egyptians have landed. Some of them have taken up to 5000 years to get here but their reincarnation at the Art Gallery of WA should be well worth the wait.

More than 100,000 people are expected to see the Louvre’s travelling show of Egyptian antiquities after it opens tomorrow. And the faces of pharaohs unearthed from tombs and shrouded commoners buried in the desert sand will be staring right back at them.

The national tour of more than 500 objects has taken six years to arrange and cost $6 million. It is the first Louvre exhibition to come to Australia in nearly 30 years and is expected to be the gallery’s most popular show since Monet and Japan drew 170,000 people in 2001.

Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife draws its inspiration from the lengths the ancient people of the Nile took to protect themselves on their trip to eternal paradise...

Pharaohs in Perth on trip to paradise, Stephen Bevis, The West Australian, Australia, July 20, 2007.