The life and role of Egyptian pharaohs will be on display at an exclusive Victorian exhibition that aims to transport visitors back thousands of years with many rarely seen artefacts.
Featuring more than 500 objects on loan from the UK, the National Gallery of Victoria's Pharaoh showcase is the largest international exhibition the British Museum has presented in its 270-year history.
British Museum curator Marie Vandenbeusch said eight years of planning had led to a showcase that blended an archaeological point of view with an art gallery focus in a 3000-year journey exploring the pharaohs' roles and the ancient Egyptian people working to serve their kings.
It encompasses an entire floor of the gallery and splits artefacts based on themes including the timeline of ancient Egypt and how kings are depicted, to harness viewers with tools to decode the artefacts later on.
People are then exposed to the main section on the different facets of pharaohs.
"What I wanted to do is to explore not just the role of the king, but all the people behind him because it's not only about that iconic figure, but about ancient Egyptian people," Dr Vandenbeusch said.
Among the displays is Horemheb, who was a general before he became the last pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt.
Dr Vandenbeusch described how researchers discovered a small cobra carved onto the forehead of the tomb he had made while he was general, signifying his ascension to king.
"That's something I love with those pieces. It's not just one layer of story, but you always have quite a lot of layers," she said.
"An object was not done at any one time but has a long story since production."
NGV director Tony Ellwood said the exhibition was designed to have a broad appeal, with the gallery expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors.
"NGV doesn't do antiquities shows very often," he said.
"In fact, you don't see them in art galleries in Australia almost at all."
Many of the artefacts are on display for the first time in Australia and Dr Wandenbuesch says may not appear again in other Egyptian exhibits.
"Quite a lot of objects that may not go in other exhibitions, sometimes because they are too big and there is one section where you have quite a lot of monumental pieces of sculpture."
Also included in the exhibition are ivory pieces from the Middle East with Egyptian motifs, which demonstrate how ideas travel in other cultures.
Creative Industries Minister Colin Brooks described the exhibition as the "jewel in the crown" of Victoria's arts and culture offerings.
Pharaoh will run from Friday to October 6.
