Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, San Jose (must see)

The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum (REM), founded by the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, is a museum about Ancient Egypt located at AMORC's Rosicrucian Park in the Rose Garden neighborhood of San Jose. The Rosicrucian Order continues to support and expand the museum and its educational and scientific activities.

In 1921 Dr. Harvey Spencer Lewis contributed financially to the archaeological excavations at Tel el Amarna of the Egypt Explorations Society of Boston by receiving donations from AMORC members. In return, the Egypt Explorations Society donated several Egyptian antiquities to AMORC. In 1928 he presented to the public a collection named "The Rosicrucian Egyptian Oriental Museum", located at the administration buildings of AMORC at San Jose, California.

After Lewis' tour in Egypt in 1929, AMORC received many more artifacts and donations and as a result the collection grew significantly, with more than 2000 exhibits.

The second Imperator of AMORC, Ralph Maxwell Lewis (F.R.C.), son of H. Spencer Lewis, decided to build new buildings for the museum. The new museum buildings opened in November 1966. By that time the museum managed to become unique by having the largest exhibition of Ancient Egyptian antiquities in the Western US, having a purpose-built planetarium adjacent to the museum, having its buildings set in an Egyptian revival park. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum contains a composite replica of an ancient Egyptian Rock cut tomb, based on photos and sketches taken by Rosicrucian expeditions to tombs at Beni Hasan, in order to give the guests the experience of being in such an excavation.