Betsy Bryan: Egyptian antiquities on display

Betsy Bryan is the guest curator for "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt," an exhibit that opened Sunday at the National Gallery of Art.

Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.

(CNN) -- Visitors to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. can get a glimpse of the past for the next few months. The museum is hosting an exhibit of more than 100 artifacts from ancient Egypt -- the largest such collection ever loaned by Egypt to North America. Exhibit curator Betsy Bryan spoke with CNN's Leon Harris about the show.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Betsy. How are you?

BETSY BRYAN, EXHIBITION CURATOR, NATIONAL GALLERY: Good morning. How are you?

HARRIS: I'm happy to see you. I want to see some of these things that you've got with you. I understand that the exhibit opened yesterday for the first time. How did the reviews this morning look?

BRYAN: Well, I think it looked very good. We had about 5,000 people coming through yesterday.

HARRIS: That's not a bad showing for the first day.

BRYAN: Not a bad showing at all.

HARRIS: Speaking of showing, why don't you do some showing right now? Let's see what you've got with you.

BRYAN: OK. We're standing right here in the realm of the gods. These are the Egyptian gods whom the Egyptians expected to meet when they crossed over into the next world. We have the god Osiris in the form of a mummy. Next to him, his wife, the goddess Isis, who protected him, and protected everybody as they made their journey through the netherworld.

EXTRA INFORMATION Gallery: Treasures of ancient Egypt    RESOURCES Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt

Next, we're going to walk over and take a look at some beautiful coffins.

HARRIS: You know, something is striking me: That may not be the most pleasant thing to see in the morning, for someone sitting down eating breakfast. But you know what, these are actually quite beautiful.

BRYAN: They really are. These are the coffins of a man who was a priest. He had a pretty wonderful job. His job was to go into the temple every morning and open the doors where the statute of the god was housed, and he would change the god's clothes. And that was his major occupation during his lifetime.

HARRIS: Now, that is what I call a real job description. I change gods' clothes.

BRYAN: That's right.

HARRIS: What is that made out of, before you leave that area? What are those things made out of?

BRYAN: These are actually wooden coffins that are then painted and varnished, so they really have the look of gold, but, in fact, are not. They are quite beautifully done.

HARRIS: It's amazing to see how that's held up over the years.

All right, you have some other things in another room. Let's see those.

BRYAN: We're going to go now into the tomb of King Thutmose III. This is a facsimile of an actual burial chamber of the king, who reigned in Egypt from 1479 to 1425 B.C. And on the walls of this tomb is the story of the journey of the sun god who descended into the netherworld at the time when the sun went down every day, and, for 12 hours, traveled through the underworld until he was able to rise again at the next morning, on the eastern horizon. And the story contains a lot of problems for the sun god. You see him riding in his boat, but eventually, the water dries up when we get over here, and he has to try to get across the sand. So he turns his boat into a snake magically, so that he can actually slither across the sand.

And after that point, he meets up with the possibility of chaos taking over. But eventually, after midnight, he actually joins with his own corpse -- his soul and his corpse join -- so that when we reach the 12th hour, which is where we are now, we see him as a scarab beetle become young again and crawl up into the horizon to dawn as the sun.

This Anthropoid coffin of Paduamen comes from the Twenty-first Dynasty, reign of the High Priest Pinudjem II, 1069-945 BCE. It is made of painted and varnished wood.

HARRIS: That's fascinating.

As you were telling us that story there, the camera just panned over a little to the left there. We saw that huge structure there. What exactly is that?

BRYAN: This is actually the sarcophagus of a princess who lived around 700 B.C. Her name was Nitocris. And this is a magnificent sarcophagus lid that shows her -- sort of a portrait of her -- as a mummy on its lid.

HARRIS: That's incredible.

What is the oldest artifact you've got there in the entire exhibit?

BRYAN: The oldest thing is actually a headrest that dates to around 2200 B.C. It's made of alabaster and probably was used all during someone's life and then placed in their tomb at the end.

HARRIS: I bet you that felt like the one I had last night on the plane, too. I hope it felt better than that, though.

Listen, Betsy, if folks were coming there, how long is this exhibit going to be there, and what are the hours there?

BRYAN: It's going to be here until October 14. Come down any day, (it's) first come, first serve. And beginning July 6, if you want to reserve ahead, you can call Ticketmaster now and reserve a time.

HARRIS: That's great.

I lied. I've got one more -- sorry. If I did that, what's the one thing I've got to see if I do come down there?

BRYAN: I think the one thing you have to see is the gold coffin of Queen Ahhotep that is housed also with her mirror and her bracelets. It's just to die for.

HARRIS: Boy, Betsy Bryan, you've got a great job, you know that? I hope you enjoy it.

BRYAN: I do, I do.

HARRIS: Enjoy the crowds that have come down there to see the National Gallery as well.