The Illustrated Guide to Luxor Tombs, Temples, and Museums, AUC Press, 2005
by Kent R. Weeks

This book is much more than just a guide to the sites of the ancient city of Luxor. It includes, in extensive detail, information about the tombs and temples of certain areas that are unavailable in regular guidebooks.   Every single page features at least one illustration — ranging from maps, photographs, paintings and drawings — corresponding to the respective site being discussed.   The guide is organized by monument, and the sites on the West Bank of the Nile are ordered chronologically by type (temple, royal tomb, private tomb).   The information is easy to follow and a glossary of Egyptology terms is included to further help the reader.   It is ideal for any traveller wishing to obtain a deeper understanding of the area, but can be equally enjoyed by those who only dream of visiting Luxor.

History, Art and Tradition, Egypt Today, Egypt, August 2005.

This books goes by the title “The Treasures of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings” elsewhere in the world.   Buy it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, or Amazon.ca.

It’s an election year. There’s a new constitution.   The opposition and the State are in conflict.   Rowdy elections are the talk of the town. 2005?   Not quite.   The year was 1923, and the conflict of the day was over who would control King Tut’s tomb.

The year 1923 was a turbulent one for Egypt that should ... sound fairly familiar today.   That year, the constitution was promulgated after lengthy debate; rowdy elections had just closed; and the rift between King Fouad and nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul was widening.

While foreign journalists are descending on Egypt this month to cover a similar basket of political issues, the reporters washing up on the nation’s shores in 1923 were less interested in current affairs in Cairo than they were in all things ancient.   Their destination: Luxor, where they descended in droves for what most of them would later bill in their stories as the archaeological event of the century: The unlocking of the untouched tomb of King Tutankhamun, which had been discovered by archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon...

The Lord and the King, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 26, Issue 08, August 2005.

A vocational training programme will revive and preserve mediaeval handicrafts in Islamic Cairo. Nevine El-Aref reports on the first phase of the project.

The majesty of Cairo's Islamic architecture has always attracted travellers, from historians to merchants who filled the souqs with all manner of products originating anywhere from China to Spain.   A peculiarly cosmopolitan atmosphere, it also attracted the most skilful craftsmen from all over the Islamic world; both cultural sophistication and political identity were expressed through art, the latter by virtue of caliphs patronising architecture and craftsmanship...

Crafting the past, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 754, 4 - 10 August 2005.

With the help of more than 60,000 CT scans, researchers have determined that a mummified Egyptian girl from a San Jose museum was probably about 4 1/2 years old, didn't suffer from chronic illnesses, had a small chin and got her insides ripped out by a right-handed person.

And, at least for eternity, she smelled nice.

The girl, born about the same time as Jesus and housed for decades in San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, has been scrutinized the past three months by researchers led by Stanford University and Silicon Graphics of Mountain View, who unveiled 3-D models Wednesday...

Unraveling the life of a little mummy, San Francisco Chronicle, California, USA, August 04, 2005.

cf. Silicon Graphics Unwraps 2000-Year-Old Mummy, BIOS Magazine, UK, August 04, 2005.

cf. Child mummy 'unveiled' with scanning technology, The Mercury News, California, USA, August 03, 2005.

cf. Child Mummy Wows Egyptologists, Wired News, USA, August 03, 2005.