"The Higher Council for antiquities will finalize in May 2005, the implementation of the complete project for development renovation of Serbaeet temple[1] at south Sinai.

Where, this temple is considered as one of the most important of the Egyptian temple that has been established in Sinai for God "Hot our"[2]; that is well known for "Turquoise lady" said yesterday Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr Zahi Hawass...

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, March 15, 2005.

[1]Serabit el-Khadem or Serabit al-Khadem.

[2]Hathor.

Long before Shakespeare portrayed her as history's most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world — for her brain.

Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queen's appearance, and they made no mention of the dangerous sensuality which supposedly corrupted Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.   Instead they marvelled at her intellectual accomplishments: from alchemy and medicine to philosophy, mathematics and town planning, a new book has claimed.

Even Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, would have struggled to inject sex appeal into this queen.   Arab writers depict Cleopatra's court as a place of intellectual seminars and scholarship rather than the more traditional vision of kohl-rimmed eyes and hedonistic intrigue.

"They admired her scientific knowledge and her administrative ability," the book's author Okasha el-Daly, who is based at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London, said.

In Egyptology: The Missing Millennium he writes that "Arabic sources often refer to Cleopatra as 'the virtuous scholar' and cite scientific books written by her as the definitive works in their field".   She was also regarded as a great builder, he claims, responsible among other things for a canal to supply Alexandria with Nile water...

[More]   The Times, UK, March 14, 2005.

Computer generates lifelike appearance for ancient remains.

Computer technology has given new life to a 3,000-year-old Egyptian woman whose linen-wrapped mummy rests in the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Golden-based medical researchers used CT scans and a computer-controlled fabrication process developed at MIT to re-create the skull and face of a mummy nicknamed Bess.

It is believed to be the first time that the high-tech modeling process, called 3D Printing, has been used to reconstruct a mummy's facial features, said Steve Humphries, director of business development for Medical Modeling of Golden [, Colorado]...

[More]   Rocky Mountain News, Colorado, USA, March 9, 2005.

cf.   Denver Museum of Nature & Science's Egyptian Mummies exhibition.

I'm a bit late with this one having only just spotted in this week's Explorator.   The New York Times have reprinted Howard Carter's obituary from the 3rd of March 1939.

LONDON, March 2. -- Howard Carter, Egyptologist who earned world fame for his discovery and exploration, in association with the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, of the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, died in his London home today at the age of 66...

[More]   New York Times, New York, USA, March 3, 1939.

A somewhat different take on the recent publication of the Tutankhamun CT scan results.

Experts may have recently established that Tutankhamen was not assassinated after all but his death remains a mystery and his "curse" continues to hang over the head of late British archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered the legendary Pharaoh's sarcophagus...

[More]   Middle East Times, Cyprus, March 10, 2005.