The British Museum exhibition Mummy: The Inside Story finishes this weekend.   The exhibition is then of on tour the United States.

First stop is the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Texas, from September 30th 2005 through until February 12th 2006.

Second stop is the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, Mobile, Alabama, from march 9th 2006 through until July 31st 2006.

After which the exhibition will tour several Asian cities, including Tokyo, in late 2006-07.

cf. 'Mummy' on its way to Mobile, The Mobile Register, Alabama, USA, August 07, 2005.

cf. Exploreum announces Major Exhibition for 2006, MSNBC, USA, August 03, 2005.

The British Museum exhibition Mummy: The Inside Story finishes this weekend, Sunday 14th August 2005, so this is your last chance to see it in the UK before it moves on to the USA.

The Cairo-based Egyptian Museum of Antiquities will open soon a second showroom for displaying more mummies to attract more visitors from the world, the Egyptian Gazette daily reported Tuesday.

Preparations for inaugurating a second showroom for mummies with a cost of 1.5 million Egyptian Pounds (259,067 US dollars) by the end of this year, Wafaa el-Seddiq, director general of the museum was quoted as saying.

The new showroom No. 52, which will display 12 newly discovered mummies, has been provided with the latest-state-of-the-art techniques to ensure the best display quality for the visitors...

Egyptian museum to open new mummy showroom, People's Daily, China, August 10, 2005, via EEF News.

Anyone seeking proof about how the world is still shrinking should drop by the GIS Laboratory in Room 116 of the College of Charleston's Hollings Science Center.

When Peter Piccione, Norm Levine and Kem Fronabarger are inside playing with the center's computers, they are manipulating geographic and satellite data to unravel secrets of some of the world's oldest building sites.

For more than 15 years, Piccione has been researching a necropolis perched on a hilltop in western Thebes, outside the modern city of Luxor...

Charleston professors study tombs of Egypt without leaving campus, Charleston Post and Courier, South Carolina, USA, August 08, 2005, via EEF News.

The priceless ancient bust of one of history's great beauties, Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, returned to Berlin's Museum Island for the first time since World War II.

The elegant limestone figure dating from 1347 BC was removed from its plinth in 1939 to protect it from bombing.   During the division of the city during the Cold War, it was displayed in a museum at the Schloss Charlottenburg palace in West Berlin.

Overnight Friday, the world-famous bust returned to the Museum Island complex in the east of the reunified capital ahead of the opening of a special exhibition of Egyptian artefacts at the city's Old Museum on Saturday.

Then in 2009, Nefertiti will move into the neighbouring, freshly renovated New Museum...

Nefertiti bust returns to pre-war perch in Berlin, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, August 12, 2005.

cf. Nefertiti Returns to Pre-War Perch in Berlin, Deutsche Welle, Germany, August 12, 2005.

cf. A 3,000-year-old smile, DPA via Expatica, Germany, August 12, 2005.   This is a much longer article than the two above.

By Zahi Hawass

He was always known as Tutankhamun until he travelled to America, where they nicknamed him "Tut".   King Tut captured all hearts when he first visited America 26 years ago.   Last month, I travelled back to America with Tut for the opening of the exhibition, "Tut and the Golden Beyond".   I was interviewed on the popular TV programme "Good Morning America" about the exhibition, and during the interview the presenter asked me: "Why does Tut capture the heart of everyone?"

"It is because of his magic and mystery," I replied...

Dig Days: The Magic of Tut, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 755, 11 - 17 August 2005.

The deadline for Rameses II's departure from Bab Al-Hadid to the Grand Museum of Egypt is to be postponed.   Nevine El-Aref says that the lofty red granite statue will remain at the centre of Bab Al-Hadid Square for another 18 months despite two years of being smothered by a growing pile of iron scaffolding while he is packed up for departure.   His new home at the Grand Museum of Egypt overlooking the Giza Plateau is not yet ready to host such an illustrious resident.

"We cannot move the statue right now, since there are a dozen trucks, loaders and pieces of heavy equipment on site to dig the foundations of the museum's several buildings," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said this week.   "It is impossible to expose the statue to another threat like the extensive vibrations caused by construction work." ...

Not moving yet, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 755, 11 - 17 August 2005.

Remains of a Hyksos treasure found early last week in a cachet within the foundation of the fortified city of Tharo in North Sinai will shed more light on Ahmose I's strategy during his famous war of liberation. Nevine El-Aref reports.

A team of archaeologists digging at Tel-Habuwa, near the town of Qantara East and three kilometres east of the Suez Canal, has made a significant discovery. The find comes as part of the search for more of the ancient forts that played a major role in protecting Egypt's eastern gateway to the Delta from foreign invasion.

Within the foundation structure of the Tharo fort, the starting point of Horus military road, Egyptian excavators this week chanced upon a cachet of limestone reliefs bearing names of two royal personalities and two seated statues of differing sizes...

King of the wild frontier, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 755, 11 - 17 August 2005.