Durham University Oriental Museum

About

**As of 19 May 2021, the Oriental Museum will be open on Wednesday – Friday between 10am-4pm and Saturday -Sunday between 12pm-4pm for pre-booked visits. At present, we will be offering free entry to all visitors.**

For the time being, you can still enjoy a range of online content from across our collections. We have been using the closed period to carry out improvements at all our sites.**  

Explore Ancient Egypt and Western Asia, the Himalayas, China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia all in one museum. 

The Oriental Museum is devoted to the art and archaeology of the great cultures of North Africa and Asia. Objects on display range in date from prehistoric to contemporary art works. Visitors can see ancient Egyptian mummies, Chinese porcelain created for the imperial court, Japanese woodblock prints and head-hunting swords from Borneo.

The museum is laid out geographically so you can focus on one area or range across whole continents.  Activities for families spread throughout the museum including dressing up, colouring, games and puzzles.  We also have regularly changing themed trails around the museum aimed at different age groups from Under 5s to adults.  The galleries have plenty of seating areas and the museum is fully accessible. 

In addition to our permanent galleries the museum hosts a regularly changing programme of special exhibitions related to the collections together with talks, art workshops and special evening events.