The Penn Museum is partnering with The Franklin Institute this summer to offer an unparalleled ancient Egyptian experience.

“Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt,” an exhibition that takes visitors inside the present-day search for Cleopatra, opens at The Franklin Institute on June 5. In conjunction with the exhibition’s run, the Penn Museum will offer a self-guided tour, "Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt," that explores the long tradition of pharaonic rule that ended with Cleopatra’s suicide in 30 B.C.E.

World renowned for its Egyptian archaeological expeditions and research, the Penn Museum boasts ancient Egyptian galleries and artifacts representing 5,000 years of history. Visitors can stand before the world’s third largest sphinx dating to the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses II (ca. 1279-1213 B.C.E.) and walk among monumental architectural elements from the palace of his son, Pharaoh Merenptah (ca. 1213-1203 B.C.E.).

David Silverman, curator-in-charge of the Museum’s Egyptian Section, is the principal consulting curator for The Franklin Institute’s exhibit and previously curated the Institute's “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.”

The Institute’s Cleopatra exhibition will feature never-before-seen artifacts and inform visitors about the ongoing search for the Egyptian queen, a story that extends from the deserts of Egypt to the city of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast.

Silverman says the partnership between the two museums offers the public “an immersive ancient Egyptian experience that may not be possible anywhere else outside Egypt.”

For more information on both exhibits, including ticket prices and museum hours, click here.