I can’t believe I’ve not taken my toddler to the Egypt Centre, Swansea before now. I assumed it was a dusty old room with some boring artefacts, if I’m being honest, but my mind was blown when we visited the other week – it’s incredible child friendly, with a ton of activities for children, making it a perfect rainy day activity. Its an easy, and free place to spend a few hours with kids.
Where is the Egypt Centre, Swansea?
The Egypt Centre is in the Swansea University grounds – more specifically, in the Taliesin Theatre building (which if driving in from the Mumbles road, is the big building to the right of the main university building.) It’s open Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 4pm.
You can park in the university grounds, which was I think was £2ish for four hours – which is alright for Swansea parking fees. We went on a bit of a miserable day, so if it wasn’t rainy, I’d have probably parked somewhere in Derwen Fawr or Brynmill for a free roadside space and walked there.
What’s in the Egypt Centre, Swansea?
I’m going to come at this from a parent’s point of view, rather than if you’re into ancient Egypt or just like learning new things because it does hold the biggest collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts in Wales – with over 5000 items – so it’s very worth going to. Here’s all the information on the collection.
When you arrive, you’ll enter the gift shop which has all sorts of jewellery, trinkets, books, toys etc. You’ll be told that the Egypt Centre is split into two. The bottom floor being the House of Death (spooky) and upstairs the House of Life.
In the House of death, you go in, and along with the exhibit, there’s a little art section, where you can do stone rubbings, a playmobile area which also has blocks, so you can make a pyramid and the Egyptian scales where you can weigh your (wool) heart against a feather to see where in the afterlife you’re off to.
Now here’s the bit that cracked me up – you can prepare a ‘body’ called Bob for the afterlife and turn it into a mummy. Now my daughter is three, so this was a mix of confusing, disconcerting yet fun for her, as she was ripping out organs from the doll, but she took it well, but was too young really. There were two students there talking her through the process, which was genuinely very interesting but better for kids a little older (or little ones really into ancient Egypt) – I think it could be scary for tiny ones.
Upstairs is a big children’s area with a load of dressing up items, a giant playmobile set, crafts, games – all sorts. We ended up sitting there for ages, but could have stayed there a lot longer if it wasn’t time for lunch and the baby was getting grumpy. It was a great little area.
The exhibition had other kid’s activities such as weaving and writing your name in hieroglyphics or learning. There were students in there making it an interactive experience, but I’m not sure if they are there all through the year, or if the extra interactive elements were just for the school holidays.
We then let my daughter run around Singleton Park for a bit after grabbing a pasty in Greggs (situated in the main University building). It was a lovely few hours – highly recommend it.
Do you know of any other unexpected places which are perfect for spending a few hours with kids on a rainy day? Let me know in the comments.
Oh, and as we’re talking about hidden gems in Swansea – have you been to Penllergaer Waterfall? There’s a new information centre – the place is brilliant.
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