The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is one of the world's most famous museums, known for containing the largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts in the Western United States, its one of a kind ancient Egyptian architectural design, and for being the headquarters of the world-wide organization AMORC. Besides the museum on the same campus there is also an adjacently-built planetarium(which is only the 5th planetarium to open in the United States).

The Museum was founded in 1928 by a group known as the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (commonly abbreviated as AMORC). The group received its collection of Egyptian artifacts in 1921 as a thank you gift from the group Egypt Explorations Society of Boston for a donation made by AMORC leader Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis. Lewis collected and donated the money from his followers to the Bostons Society's archaeological excavation of the city of Tel el Amarna, pharaoh Akhenatens capital city. Later in 1928 shortly after the museum opened Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis went on a lecturing tour of Egypt. The tour was so successful he received a significant amount of Ancient Egyptian artifacts which rose the amount of exhibits in the museum to over 2000! The amount of new material on display was so numerous that Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis's son and successor as leader of AMORC, Ralph Maxwell Lewis increased the size of the actual museum through a series of construction projects which finally ended in 1966.

This museum sports many features that make it original and highly different from any other museum in the world. Some of the most interesting and curious features are the way it was built, and the amazing attention to detail it was built with. Upon arriving at the museum visitors will notice a large statue of Taweret the hippopotamus-like goddess of pregnant women and childbirth. While standing at the entrance visitors will also notice for the first time just how many large Egyptian-style building there are, The largest and closest building to the entrance is the actual museum, a tall pillared structure with many elaborate decorations on its walls. Another clearly noticeable structure is the planetarium which is a little further of and of course, is built in the traditional Ancient Egyptian style as well. In addition to these buildings there is one more place were tourists can go and that is the garden, complete with its own Egyptian style water fountain, benches, and plants. there are several other buildings on the premises but they are, unfortunately off limits to the public.

Almost as interesting as the actual museum is the group that owns and founded the museum, AMORC or as it is also called the Rosicrucian Order. AMORC traces its origins back to about 1500B.C. when supposedly Pharaoh Thutmose III established secret schools were the earliest members of AMORC were trained. Today the organization exists in most countries around the world and is happy to recruit new overage members. The group is considered by most today as a sort of philysophical and educational organization due to the fact members in the group are referred to as "students". Today AMORC claims several extremely well-known historical figures have been members in it. The list of supposed members includes Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson though, today there is no solid evidence known to the public that suggests any of these individuals knew of the group.

So even though the exact day to day dealings of AMORC may not be exactly clear one thing is for sure, the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is is a great place to visit and explore. Guided tours are available everyday and are extremely interesting to anyone curious about ancient egypt. The Museum is located at AMORC's Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose, California.

Sources: Weird California book; Wikipedia.com

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