...on my second visit to the country and on what was, in essence, just the sort of trip that Thomas Cook put together 150 years ago when he led a group of tourists on his first overseas “grand tour” to Brussels, Cologne, the Rhine, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Paris.

This was the first foreign package holiday — and, in my view, its spirit survives.   While independent travel has become the vogue, and many sun-and-sand packages have degenerated into little more than a cheap way to eat, drink and sunbathe — as Rosemary Behan discovered — some packages still offer the best way to travel...

Good things can come in packages, Telegraph, UK, July 02, 2005.

A letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times that refers back to this story: In Defense of King Tut.

Re "In Defense of King Tut," Commentary, June 20: Thomas Hoving talks about going into the Egyptian Museum in 1975 after-hours, alone, and given permission to open any case, even kissing Tut's gold mask.   Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief of antiquities, wants Egyptian treasures in foreign museums to be returned to Egypt.

Where were the alarms when the case was opened so that Hoving could kiss the mask?   Where were the security guards who should have accompanied him?   Has security gotten any better at the Egyptian Museum today?   In 1994, I visited the tomb of Tutankhamen in Egypt and was appalled to see dust on the clear covering over the sarcophagus.   Surely safer to leave these precious objects where they are until the Egyptians can be better stewards of their treasures.

Christine Gan

Pasadena

Egypt Needs to Be a Better Steward of Its Past, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, June 25, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said Tuesday that a mission of Cairo University Faculty of Archaeology operating in Saqqara area was able to unearth a big sarcophagus dating to the reign of King Rameses II (1279-1213 BC).

"The sarcophagus, made of rosy granite and bears hieroglyphic signs and different titles of the deceased, belongs to an overseer of stables during the reign on Rameses II," said Hosni...

Sarcophagus dating back to Ramses Reign discovered in Saqqara, State Information Service, Egypt, Jun 29, 2005.

"Three gold mines have been discovered in al-Ela1qi Valley, South of Eastern desert," the Minister of Oil, Sameh Fahmi, announced yesterday.

...It is also notable that this valley was a permanent gold source some 4000 years ago for the pharaohs of ancient Egypt.

Gold mines discovered in al-Elaqi Valley, State Information Service, Egypt, June 30, 2005.

The activities of the executive committee for setting up the Nubia Museum in Asswan and the Civilization Museum in Fustat (Old Cairo) started yesterday at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

Meantime, the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA) Secretary- General Zahi Hawass said that Egypt exerts tremendous efforts for restoring the smuggled antiques from abroad, noting that three thousand artifacts were restored during the past three years.

Moreover, Egypt demanded restoring Rosetta stone that is on show in the British Museum and Nefertiti bust that is on show in Berlin Museum and the Zodiac in Louvre.

SCA restores 3,000 artifacts in three years, State Information Service, Egypt, June 30, 2005.