Ahem.

The underwear once worn by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun is the centerpiece of a new touring exhibition entitled "Tutankhamun and the Golden Ass of the Pharaohs."   After a successful run in Europe, where it was entitled "Tutankhamun: the Golden Behind," the exhibition will be visiting Los Angeles, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, and Philadelphia starting next month.

In order to learn more about the king's life, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has conducted a DNA test on the underwear.   "The ancient Egyptians invented the DNA sample," says director general of the SCA, Zahi Hawass...

[More]   The Spoof!, May 29, 2005, via ArchNews.

An old article from the Harvard Magazine, definitely worth a read if you haven't seen it before.

Not slaves.   Archaeologist Mark Lehner digging deeper, discovers a city of privileged workers.   By Jonathan Shaw.

... The question of who labored to build them, and why, has long been part of their fascination.   Rooted firmly in the popular imagination is the idea that the pyramids were built by slaves serving a merciless pharaoh.   This notion of a vast slave class in Egypt originated in Judeo-Christian tradition and has been popularized by Hollywood productions like Cecil B. De Mille's The Ten Commandments, in which a captive people labor in the scorching sun beneath the whips of pharaoh's overseers.   But graffiti from inside the Giza monuments themselves have long suggested something very different...

[More]   Harvard Magazine, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, Volume 105, Number 6, July-August 2003, pp. 42 - 49, 99.

The United Nations Postal Administration. are issuing, on the 4th of August 2005, a set of six stamps to commemorate World Heritage in Egypt.

World Heritage - Egypt

An eight page article can be found in Fascination the Philatelic Journal for Collectors, no. 306, 3/2005, pp. 14 - 21.

Thanks to Peter Grey for this one.

Tour Egypt have published an exclusive interview with Dr. Zahi Hawass by Adel Murad in Cairo.

[More]   TourEgypt.net, Texas, USA, May 24, 2005.

Action Products International, Inc. ... announced that the company is shipping two of its I DIG(R) items to art museums for the next seven years as the acclaimed Tutankhamen exhibit tours art museums across the United States...

Our research department continues to create outstanding toys that enhance a child's learning experience and our total sales to museums...

[More]   BusinessWire, USA, May 26, 2005.

Thus spoke the Sphinx -- to Fatemah Farag.

No one took me seriously when I suggested going to the Sound and Light Show at the Giza Pyramids.   "Get a life," friends and family would scoff, notwithstanding my insistence that "a healthy interest in ancient heritage" should be commended as a rule.   And dragging a resigned hubby to the village of Nazlet Al-Semman, adjacent to which the said show is held in the vicinity of no other than the Sphinx was the only way I could feel vindicated.   There are few road signs to guide you through the ill paved streets leading up to this world-class spectacle, but stopping to ask directions on the way is hardly frowned on, in the end.   It was precisely three stops after the Nazlet Al-Semman turning -- right beneath the Giza Plateau, as if to refute every legal and archaeological argument against it, the neighbourhood bubbles with life -- that a bunch of policemen appeared, followed by several busloads of tourists.   You are only expected to come in a group, it seems, with a driver who knows his way about...

[More]   Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 744, 26 May - 1 June 2005.

Rasha Sadek sinks into the depths of Alexandria's Mediterranean in search of the city's submerged archaeology.

Shakespeare's writings are immortal and so, too, are the settings of his plays.   Cleopatra's Palace that once saw the most thrilling drama of Mark Anthony, Cleopatra and Octavius, has survived time and nature, standing haughtily underneath the waters of the Mediterranean Sea of Alexandria.

Thanks to the earthquake that rocked Alexandria in 1323 the Mediterranean has preserved to divers one of the seven wonders of the world -- Alexandria's Lighthouse, the remnants of which now lie nine metres on the sea bed.

A new tourist attraction has found its way to historical Alexandria.   Wreckdiving is a dive into history where entire cities, palaces and ships from Pharaonic and Graeco- Roman times -- dating as far back as 300 BC -- lie beneath the Alexandrian shore...

[Source]   Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 744, 26 May - 1 June 2005.

Astrology centre or suburbia?   Nevine El-Aref visits another Heliopolis.

The word Heliopolis brings to mind a chic suburb built in 1905 by Baron Empain.   What the name originally refers to is in fact an area 10km away; today it covers the lower middle- class quarters of Ain Shams, Matariya and Tel Al-Hisn.   A city of antiquity, it was more or less completely obliterated in modern times.   Connected to the Nile by a canal, Heliopolis (the Ancient Egyptian Iunu and Biblical On) was always a place of eminence.   As early as pre-dynastic times it was considered a holy site -- a fact to which the discovery, in the 1950s, of a large cemetery containing 145 human and 14 goat and dog mummies testified.   Simple graves set into round or oval pits of various sizes and depths -- a few of them were lined with reed or wood -- they contained only the most basic items.   Subsequent studies by the archaeologist credited with the discovery, Fernand Debono, and the Desert Institute point to the performance of ritual activities in these burial chambers, with hearths suggesting funerary meals...

[Source]   Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 744, 26 May - 1 June 2005.

By Hassan Saadallah

Executive steps have already been taken towards the construction of the huge museum on the Cairo-Alexandria highway, said Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni.   An Egyptian company is currently preparing a 117 feddan site where the largest museum ever will be established at a total cost of US$550 million.   Despite the substantial cost, finance is no problem - in addition to the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) money, international fund-raising campaigns are planned, the first of which is already accompanying the Tutankhamen US exhibition.

The current stage of construction will last four months and will include building a fencing wall, the removal of encroaching structures, the preparation of subways within the site and their provision with lighting.

According to Yasser Mansour, head of the Technical Committee, weekly meetings are held with an advisory team comprised of l4 Egyptians and international bureaux and companies to execute the winning design of Irish architect Shefring.   However, by next month tenders will have been invited to establish a restoration centre, a power station and a fire brigade; all of which will be operative before the completion of the museum premises.   Mansour said that l00,000 artefacts will be extracted from a variety of museums and archaeological sites across the country to be restored and well-stored until the construction of the museum, a process which will take three years.

He went on to say that by mid-October the blueprint of the exhibition halls will be ready.   The design relies on an ingenious idea that allows an individual to see the pyramids of Giza from inside the halls and from all angles.

Simultaneous to the construction of the Giza museum, another huge project is underway: the construction of the National Civilisation Museum at Fustat, south of Cairo.   The first stage of this project is already completed.

As Ayman Abdul Moniem, supervisor of the project explains, the museum is different from the others given that it will display items belonging to all Egyptian cultures from pre-historic until modern times.   The museum is to occupy an area of 25 feddans and is scheduled to be completed in the course of three years with estimated costs of LE200 million.   It is designed to exhibit some 50,000 pieces revealing Egyptian accomplishments in all areas.

The idea of the museum goes back to the early l980s when a competition was organised for designers under the supervision of UNESCO.   The result was announced in l985 and a site at the Gezira grounds was suggested.   However, this area was too small for such a huge project given that it required at least 50,000 metres squared.   The project was therefore postponed until a new site was chosen in Fustat, the old capital of Islamic Egypt.

The building occupies an area of about five feddans only, while the remaining 20 will be used as a garden and for annexed services.   UNESCO was keen to allow a panoramic view of the chosen area so that vision would not be blocked by high rises.

UNESCO takes special interest in the museum since it is all-embracing of Egyptian culture and administers several cultural activities such as movie shows, theatre performances and laboratories.   The display halls have been designed so that the Islamic wing will have as a background the mosque of Amr Ibn Al Ass whereas the Coptic wing will take the nearby Coptic museum as its background.

The first construction stage of the museum has already been completed whereas the second and final phase focuses on interior design.   The items to be displayed have already been chosen and their labels are being prepared.

The museum will not only present artefacts but also other objects that highlight features of the Egyptian civilisation.   It will give an idea about the people who lived on the banks of the Nile, their thoughts and daily life.   For this reason the museum will display objects donated by the Railway Authority and the Ministries of Agriculture and Transportation.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, May 26, 2005.

By Hassan Saadallah

The Monastery of Anba Antonius in the East Desert is of worldwide importance given its status as the first monastery ever.   The monastery dates back to the fourth century AD and is currently undergoing a restoration process for which some LE25 million has been allocated.

The founder of the monastery, Saint Antonius, has a long story and a marked role in the foundation of monasticism.   Born in 251AD at a small village in Beni Suef, Antonius grew up to be a pious Christian.   One day while praying in church, he listened to certain lines from the Bible that inspired him to sell his property, divide the money among the poor, and dedicate himself to the worship of God.   During the period of Christian oppression at the hands of Roman Emperor Iclidianus in 311AD, Antonius toured prisons in Alexandria to support prisoners.   When oppression abated, he went out into the desert where he spent twenty years in seclusion.   However, people frequented him asking for advice and help.   In fear of becoming self-conceited, he travelled deeper into the East Desert where he was unknown to anyone.   He travelled in the company of some Bedouins, finally settling in a cavern, eating from nearby palm trees and drinking from a water spring.   To this day, the spring remains the main source of water for monks and visitors to Saint Antonius' monastery.

Because he was granted the gift of healing people by God, he became very famous and as result people came to him from distant places.   However, some of them opted to settle in his neighbourhood and upon their persistence he had to establish a place for them for worship and reside.   This was the first monastery ever.

The restoration of the monastery began four years ago and is now almost half-way complete.   However, because the monastery has several extensions added in later years, the project has classified the existing structures into religious, archaeological and modern religious dwelling places and services structures.   The archaeological part includes the monastery, a mill, an oil press, Anba Morqos Church, The Virgin Church and a fortress. The residence includes the monks' cells and a guest palace which was initially a mere room with an annexed area for cooking.   In the age of Patriarch Kirilus IV, it was converted into a palace comprising four rooms and a hall.

Work on the site has not yet come to an end as some structures in addition to the fencing wall still need restoration, commented Essam Kamel, Director of the Engineering Administration of the SCA.   Excavations are also to be conducted to uncover the extension of the fortress that goes back to the 6th century AD.

The school, modern monks' cells in and outside of the wall, and the dining hall that was used for offering food to Bedouins, which are all classified as non-archaeological, will undergo some changes so that their facades will integrate with the rest of the archaeological structures on site.

[Source]   The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, May 26, 2005.

£500m redevelopment of former white elephant will include 23,000- seat arena, music hall of fame and exhibition space.

...

The first big show to hit The O2's exhibition centre will be a collection of artefacts found in the tomb of the Egyptian boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun...

[More]   The Guardian, UK, May 26, 2005.

The Smithsonian Magazine have an article on the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibition which opens soon at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

An exhibition featuring the first CT scans of the boy king's mummy tells us more about Tutankhamun than ever before.

"The problem with Tutankhamun is that you have an embarrassment of riches of objects, but when you get down to the historical documents and what we actually know, there is very little," says Kathlyn Cooney, a Stanford University Egyptologist and one of the curators of the first Tutankhamun exhibition to visit the United States in more than a quarter-century...

[More]   Smithsonian Magazine, Sminthsonian Institute, District of Columbia, USA, June 2005.

Official exhibition website: Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

The return of King Tut pits a growing reliance on big-ticket glitter against museums' mission to enlighten.

The mummy of Tutankhamun lies in pieces in its tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings.

It was dismembered, beheaded and cut in half in 1925, when Westerners separated Tut's resin-stuck corpse from its solid-gold coffin, making a literal hack job of it.

Maybe it's poetic justice, then, that Tut's return is exposing growing philosophical clefts in the corpus of the American art museum...

[More]   Los Angeles Times, California, USA, May 22, 2005, via Cronaca.

A letter published in last week's Al-Ahram decrying the Tutankhamun CT scan and the 'tragic state of our antiquities'.

Sir -- I am sickened and appalled by the unending desecration of the mummies of our ancient ancestors by the current Egyptian Antiquities authorities 'Tutankhamun unmasked' (Al-Ahram Weekly, 12-18 May).   What is even worse is to learn that this desecration is performed for the unimportant purpose of achieving inconclusive results about the cosmetic appearance of a deceased Pharaoh, based on interpretive speculation by modern computer technicians...

[More]   Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 743, 19 - 25 May 2005.

A long article (published over five-pages in the Sunday Times Magazine supplement) that takes pot-shots at Zahi Hawass and drags up the Joann Fletcher Nefertiti affair again.

They call him the Pharaoh, the keeper of the pyramids.   He rules Egyptology with an iron fist and a censorious tongue.   Nobody crosses Zahi Hawass and gets away with it.   As the fabulous treasures of Tutankhamun begin a world tour, Richard Girling excavates the conspiracies, conflicts and fears that curse the world of archaeology.

... It is Hawass who holds the keys to the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, the Sphinx, Abu Simbel, everything.   No Egyptologist gets in without his permission, and few will chance his anger...

... Hawass is a one-man conflict zone who could start a war in an empty sarcophagus...

[More]   The Sunday Times Magazine, UK, May 22, 2005.

Rebekah Miracle is working on Mark Lehner's Giza Mapping Project and maintaining a weblog during her time in Egypt on the project.

Check it out here:   Rock the Casblog

All three versions of the Tutankhamun facial reconstruction - the French, American, and the Egyptian team's versions - have been uploaded to the EEF website.

[More]   EEF via ArchaeoBlog.

The spring 2005 issue of Egyptian Archaeology Magazine was published some weeks ago now but I forgot to blog it at the time.

A summary of its content follows.

• Dominic Montserrat and Egyptian Archaeology by Patricia Spencer
• Satellite imaging in the pyramid fields by Miroslav Bárta and Vladimír Brůna
• Mendes: city of the ram-god by Donald Redford
• Marsa Nakari: an ancient port on the Red Sea by John Seegar and Steven Sidebotham
• The Tuthmoside stronghold of Perunefer by Manfred Bietak
• The great naos of Nekhthorheb from Bubastis by Neal Spencer
• All this pottery, what is it about? by Janine Bourriau
• Two graves and a well at Sais by Penny Wilson
• The quarries of Gebel Gulab and Gebel Tingar, Aswan by Elizabeth Bloxam and Per Storemyr

[More]   Egyptian Archaeology, UK, No. 26, Spring 2005.

The magazine can be purchased via Oxbow Books / David Brown Book Co. here.

World-renowned producer John Haymen has nominated Yusra and Dalia Al Buhairi for roles in his upcoming film, "Nefertiti Queen of the Nile."   Haymen has also chosen Egyptian actors Hani Salama and Khaled Al Nabawi for supporting roles.

Hugh Hudson has been chosen as director, and Ahmad Othman, who resides in England, wrote the script; the film is expected to receive international recognition...

[More]   Al Bawaba, Jordan, May 23, 2005.

The tourism industry in Egypt is keeping a close eye on business following two recent attacks that appeared directed at Westerners.   Some operators have reported cancellations, while others see no change.   Tourism is Egypt's premier foreign currency earner.   "The effects were very limited. It lasted two days, and now it's over..."

[More]   IPS News Service via Dawn Group, Pakistan, May 21, 2005.

Archaeology Magazine's Mark Rose reviews a forthcoming History Channel TV show.

A documentary looks at the subject's roots and an ambitious project to document the Nile's ancient civilization.

Two shows are somewhat awkwardly stuck together in The Search for Eternal Egypt, which premieres on the History Channel, Sunday, June 12, 7 pm ET/PT.   One half of the show is an overview of the development of Egyptology featuring prominent scholars, mostly filmed on-site.   The other half of the show focuses on an ambitious partnership between Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities and IBM that aims at making ancient Egyptian culture available to all.   The documentary bounces back and forth between these two themes, but the feel of the two parts is very different, and the transitions from talking heads in the field to computer specialists and digitized images are abrupt despite the efforts of narrator Omar Sharif...

[More]   Archaeology Magazine, USA, May 23, 2005.

A 'letter to the editor' published in the St. Petersburg Times by Will Michaels, executive director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History.

Re: 2,300 years later, mummy looks good, May 4.

Yes, your front-page picture of the newly discovered 2,300-year-old mummy is exciting.   The golden mask and brilliantly colored images on the burial cloth are stunning.

But local residents and visitors do not need to go to Saqqara, Egypt, to see an Egyptian mummy.   We have an even older mummy right here in St. Petersburg at the Museum of History...

[More]   St. Petersburg Times, Florida, USA, May 22, 2005.

A tourist article by Blasio Byekwaso, Kampala, Uganda.

My tour of Egypt in June last year was in fulfilment of a promise I had made. It was a fact finding tour about what my primary teachers taught me about the pharaohs, who built gigantic pyramids regarded as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world...

[More]   allAfrica.com, South Africa, May 21, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni stated that the first phase in constructing the Grand Museum of Egypt at Cairo-Alexandria desert road has already started.   One of the Egyptian companies is paving the new location on 117 feddans and at a cost of L.E 5 million.

Farouk Hosni affirmed that everything concerning the construction is undergoing accurate according to set schedules.   He said that there is no problem in the finance and there are alternatives as the finance we get from the Supreme Council of Antiquities besides the international aid from international agencies.   For the first time we have an American commitment for hosting "Tutankhamen" exhibit in four American states and the aid will be directed to the Museum construction...

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, May 22, 2005.

The ancient Egyptian civilization is adored by the French people who always seek for discovering secrets in this great civilization.   The latest French discovery was recomposition of an approximate image for Tut- Ankh-Amun's face.

The French magazine "Le Figaro" published a detailed report on this discovery which was also circulated in all international and regional magazines were interested in this issue.

The report shows the great role which was played by the team who were working in the Egyptian mummy project...

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, May 21, 2005.

Mayor of Hanover City in Germany will inaugurate an exhibition on Wednesday about the history of Copts in Egypt under the title "2000 years of Christianity on the Nile banks".   The inauguration ceremony will be attended by the Egyptian cultural counselor and Anba Demian of Copts in Germany.

[More], Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, May 21, 2005.

Queen Nefertiti, famed in the ancient world for her outstanding beauty, is to be reincarnated in an ambitious new British feature film...

The Nefertiti project has a budget of £63 million and will be directed by Hugh Hudson 24 years after he received four Oscars for Chariots of Fire.   The queen and her husband, the Pharaoh Akhenaten, abandoned the gods and priests of Karnak at Thebes and built the glorious city of Tel al-Amarna to worship the sun god...

[More]   The Times, UK, May 20, 2005.