Numbers of visitors to the Queensland Museum are expected to swell significantly when a new exhibition from the British Museums Egyptology collection opens to the public on Thursday.

The well preserved mummies, sarcophagi and statues await eager eyes and fascinated history buffs to view the thousands of year old antiquities in their humidity controlled glass houses in the exhibition - Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb.

But the question of why we continue to be intrigued by this ancient culture remains.

Assistant Keeper in the department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum and curator of the exhibition John Taylor says part of the allure is because their culture was so carefully preserved.

"You can get a really, really comprehensive view of what life was like 3000 years ago.

"What this reveals to the public is really how the Egyptians would make their way into the next life. This is the technology they used, the magic that they thought they could activate to get them to eternal life.