The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM) was founded in 1928 by Harvey Spencer Lewis, who at the time served as Imperator of AMORC.
The first site of the museum was at Rosicrucian Park in San Jose, California.
In 1954, a new museum building was constructed near downtown San Jose and opened on February 4, 1961. In 1978 the current East Wing was added.
The Temple of Amon at Karnak has been a model for buildings around the world.
The museum is located on Naglee Ave. in San Jose, CA. It contains over 50,000 rare and valuable Egyptian artifacts. The entire complex occupies about 12 acres (4.9 ha) of land displaying ancient Egyptian monuments re-assembled in one grand theme park-like atmosphere with California’s redwood trees found throughout. This building is said to be architecturally inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak
There are three major parts to this museum:
(Naglee Avenue Entrance)
• East wing with several rooms depicting some early dynasties, temples to the Pharaohs, funeral representations, and temple-related artifacts.
• West Wing with an extensive collection of papyrus documents (over 500 different writings). Among these writings are two versions of the “Pharaoh’s Prayer” (which includes several biblical verses) which was found in 1798 on a Papyrus Scroll. Also shown is one of the earliest copies of the Book of the Dead dating to ca. 1000 BC, as well as other hieroglyphics texts;
• Egyptian Theater designed for special presentations and lectures about Egyptian culture. It has 432 seats under a roof that simulates a starry sky when dark where each seat represents a star constellation in Egypt’s night sky. The stage curtain shows a drawing depicting Queen Hatshepsut’s expedition to the Land of Punt.
The museum also has a Garden Area which includes many funerary and domestic items shown in their true size. The garden lights up with special fountains and music at night.
The admission to this attraction is free, but donations are accepted. All money raised goes towards new acquisitions for the collection.