Egyptian Room, Royal Arch Masonic Temple, Historic Masonic meeting room in Petersham, Sydney, Australia

The Egyptian Room is a Masonic lodge room at 23-35 New Canterbury Road, Petersham, designed by A. Phipps Coles. Its walls and flat ceiling carry painted friezes reproducing vignettes from the Papyrus of Ani, sculpted in low-relief plaster by G. R. Lumb and Sons, with Egyptian-style columns, a raised wooden platform and a lectern at the far end.

The room was originally built in 1927 on College Street as a ceremonial center for Masons. In 1969 it was carefully taken apart and reconstructed at New Canterbury Road in 1977.

The frieze reproduces vignettes from the Papyrus of Ani, a funerary text of about 1450 BC, tracing the scribe Ani's funeral procession and the weighing of his heart against the feather of Maat. Over the Junior Warden's Chair a relief copies a 20th Dynasty stele of a worshipper offering to Osiris.

The room is located at New Canterbury Road and serves as an active meeting place for the Masonic Lodge. Since this is a working temple, plan ahead and check when it is open to visitors to arrange access.

The most remarkable aspect is that the room was completely dismantled in 1969, requiring careful planning and craftsmanship to reassemble it identically years later. This reconstruction showed just how skilled the workers were in preserving every detail.