The Houston Museum of Natural Science have made available some podcasts for the Mummy the inside story exhibition.

What is a podcast I hear you cry! Check out the definition at Wikipedia.

Basically what Houston Museum have done is upload 55 minutes of audio tour for the exhibition (nearly 40MB) to their website. The idea being that you download these to you iPod, or similar MP3 capable portable music device and listen to them when you see the podcast icon during the exhibition.

Of course since these are in MP3 format anyone can download and listen to them using a PC or Mac based MP3 player, without actually going to the exhibition, or even burn them to CD and listen to them in the car on the way to work!

Download a Mummy Guide to your iPod or mp3 Player!, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston, Texas, USA.

The purist geek in me says that these aren't really a podcast as they are not delivered to you via an aggregator in an RSS or Atom feed. But I'm not complaining!

Ankh the game now has a website all of its own which can be found here www.ankh-game.de. The game is scheduled for release for the PC on November 11, 2005 from BHV software.

After a wild party at Pharaoh’s pyramid, young Assil accidentally dumps holy urns and gets himself a death curse — there he also discovers the precious amulet Ankh.

Ankh site now live, Adventure Gamers, September 28, 2005.

And...

New Spanish developer Silicon Garaje Arts announced today its first project, The Shadow of Aten, an action/thriller games where you embody a British ex-agent, Allam Scott, investigating the murder of a renowned British archaeologist in Cairo in the year 1936. The game is full of action and with a high cultural component developed in such an exciting time as the discovery of the pharaonic tombs.

'The Shadow of Aten' (X360/PC) Announced, Worth Playing, September 26, 2005.

Egyptian mummies have jealously guarded their secrets for millennia.

Until recently, the only way to learn about a mummy was to unwrap it. However, this process is both destructive and irreversible.

But the development of modern imaging technology has made it possible to extract volumes of information without disturbing the mummies.

“Mummy: The Inside Story,” opening at the Houston Museum of Natural Science today, reveals these ancient secrets of ancient Egypt...

Mummy exhibit combines history, hi-tech, Galveston County Daily News, Texas, USA, September 30, 2005.

After five years of extensive restoration, the exquisite Mohamed Ali Pasha Palace in Shubra is to be opened by President Hosni Mubarak this October. Nevine El-Aref reports.

On the Nile bank in Shubra, set in a splendid park planted with rare trees and shrubs, is Mohamed Ali's residential palace. Only part of the palace survives, but following restoration it now looks as majestic as it did 200 years ago.

Over the last five years the palace, once known as the Egyptian Versailles, has been subjected to comprehensive restoration to save the exquisite early 19th-century buildings, which feature a blend of rococo and baroque styles...

Brought back to life, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 762, 29 September - 5 October 2005.

Minya might not be the most glamorous of travel destinations but after a closer look Pierre Loza found that it helped put Egyptian rural life past and present in perspective.

Minya's Zawyet Sultan, also known as Zawyet Al-Amwat, incorporates the ancient with the more recent past. Still used today as a cemetery, it is an area which exudes a crossroads of histories and civilisations that is so prevalent in Minya...

It feels good, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 762, 29 September - 5 October 2005.

Egyptian priest Nesperennub undoubtedly would've been amazed that his body — mummified around 800 B.C. — would be subjected to a CT scan 2,800 years later. The Trustees of the British Museum The inner coffin of Nesperennub is on display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

But virtual-reality imaging has shaken the dust off the reputation of Egyptology. And modern techniques for viewing mummies do them no harm, either physically, or — based on ancient Egyptian beliefs — spiritually.

Mummy: The Inside Story opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science today...

Unwrapping the mysteries of mummies, Houston Chronicle, Texas, USA, September 28, 2005.

B1 Media has completed 69 visual effects shots, including 3D and live-action, for the History Channel’s “Egyptian Book of the Dead.” Morningstar Entertainment produced. “Book of the Dead“ focuses on a young man’s quest to find the true meaning behind the ancient text and happiness in the afterlife.

B1 took original HD footage shot on greenscreen and keyed out the backgrounds. Concept art created by B1 was then used to create digital matte paintings for backgrounds (many of which without reference). Using camera projection, the matte paintings were mapped out with 3D geometry and the live action footage was composited into the backgrounds. For one sequence, B1 hand illustrated wall drawings, rescanned, did paint up and animated them.

“The creative challenge,” said VFX Supervisor and Producer Brian Metcalf, “was to realistically recreate the ancient environments while imagining what the afterlife would have looked like in the minds of the Egyptians.”

“B1 has done an amazing job of realizing our original vision for ancient Egypt and the ‘Book of the Dead’,” said Morningstar Executive Producer Gary Tarpinian. “Brian Johnson and his VFX team took our original ideas and brought them to a whole new level thanks to their great ideas and outstanding CGI craftsmanship.”

B1 Media Brings “Egyptian Book of the Dead” to Life, Film and Video Magazine, USA, September 28, 2005.

The Greco-Roman museum in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria has been closed and will remain so for two years to allow restoration work to proceed, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the work will include restoration of the museum building and its library. The museum's showcases will be improved to ensure better display of the artifacts, he said in a statement faxed to news organizations.

The Greco-Roman museum houses a large number of Egypt's antiquities from the period roughly falling between 300 BC and the Arab conquest in the 7th century. It was built in 1895 and has been renovated several times.

Its building was last restored about 20 years ago.

Greco-Roman museum in Alexandria, Egypt, closed for restoration, AP via Canada.com, Canada, September 28, 2005.

A Belgian University Research Centre received 2,500 year-old Egyptian mummies on September 12 for a body scan which could help scientists rebuild their faces and hopefully clarify some of their well-kept ancient secrets.

One of them is believed to be King Re’s barber and porter, Priest Ousirmose, whilst the other is totally anonymous. It is hoped that the CT scan will finally determine this mummy’s gender and identity. Even their origins are unclear. All that is known is that they were once part of a 19th century Belgian collection.

Egyptologist at the the FNRS, (National Funds for Scientific Research) Dimitri Laboury, believes both mummies were priests from ancient Egypt`s upper middle class in the 7th or 6th century B.C....

2,500-year-old mummies scanned in Liege to reveal secrets, Zee News, India, September 15, 2005.

cf. Les Momies de Liège uu CHU!, Université de Liège, September, 2005.   Google Translate.

A virtual reality pharaoh's tomb is being developed in Swansea so school children can journey to ancient Egypt.

Pupils visiting the Egypt Centre at the city's university will test what they learn in a 3D interactive setting.

Created by locally-based web and 3D animation firm Waters Designs, it will be housed in the £500,000 VR Cave at Technium Digital at the university...

Egypt Centre to have virtual tomb, BBC News, UK, September 26, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni approved an LE 3 million Egyptian-Italian project to renovate and develop archaeological sites in the area of Kom Mady in Fayoum.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that more excavations would be carried out at the old temple area that used to be designated for ancient Egyptian worshippers of harvest Gods.

Sands covering the cemetery adjacent to the temple would be removed and the site would be renovated, he added.

He said that the project would be completed within 12 month period, pointing out it aims at providing facilities required to list the area on the local and international tourist maps.

Egyptian-Italian project to list Fayoum monuments on world map, State Information Service, Egypt, September 28, 2005.

Aswan Governor General Samir Youssef has ordered the investigation of a senior antiquities inspector responsible for the Pharaonic noblemen's graves on the west bank of the Nile.

In the meantime, the inspector has been demoted to a humble administrative post as a punishment for neglecting his duties.

The Governor is having the performance of all the archaeologists, inspectors and security guards working in Aswan in this sector reviewed, in preparation for the new tourist season.

In related news, General Youssef has also allotted an area of land near the river in Aswan to be used for camel rides and as a car park for taxis.

He has also given instructions for the creation of a new guidebook for Aswan, as well as repairing roads, paths and walkways to benefit visitors and constructing a new jetty for tourist boats to berth.

Senior antiquities inspector suspended, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, September 28, 2005.

The ancient Egyptian treasures — including those from the tomb of King Tut — that make up the exhibit "King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs" is heading to Chicago, and so should you. The show, currently on display in Los Angeles, will go to The Field Museum, a sprawling structure on the shores of Lake Michigan with a collection dedicated to natural history and anthropology, in May 2006. Why see it in the Windy City? Because the show will be displayed with the Field's own collection of 1,400 artifacts from ancient Egypt. (Tickets, $25, will be available in advance by calling 866-343-5303 or online at fieldmuseum.org.)

Fifty-Two Weekends: Arts & Entertainment, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, September 25, 2005.

The short film "Cleopatra", made in 1899 by pioneering director Georges Melies and thought lost to history, has been discovered in a secret storeroom in France, his descendants said.

Lasting just two minutes, the film was the 202nd of 520 made by Melies between 1896 and 1912 and is considered a groundbreaking classic in the early history of cinema...

'Lost' Melies film discovered in France, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, September 21, 2005.

The tomb of Tutankhamun lay undisturbed in Upper Egypt’s Valley of the Kings through many centuries, from the end of the 18th Dynasty (BCE 1572-1315) to the twentieth century, when it was uncovered by the British excavator Howard Carter, under the patronage of the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon. When the Earl died unexpectedly within weeks after the discovery, stories spread quickly that an ancient curse had been unleashed as a consequence of disturbing the royal burial. The rumours grew extravagantly as time passed and more than twenty key persons connected to the discovery or its excavation died under untimely circumstances. The alleged curse, purportedly written near the entry to the tomb, that “death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the pharaoh” was never documented, but it has persisted to this day. Ironically, belief in the existence and power of this mythical curse underscores a pervasive acknowledgement of Egypt’s magical legacy...

The Magic of Tutankhamun, The Llewellyn Journal, Minnesota, USA, September 26, 2005.

This is just one of many of these stories around at the moment to coincide with the upcoming Tutankhamun exhibition in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Similar stories were abound when the Tut exhibition hit Los Angeles earlier this year. The only new thing seems to be the picture of Tut with a tissue coming out of his nose?

Computer-generated portraits of Tutankhamun in an exhibit coming to the Museum of Art in December have sparked criticism and protests by black activists who say they depict the boy king as white.

Researchers hired by the National Geographic Society, one of the exhibit's sponsors, say current forensic data and recent CAT scans of his mummy were used to create the images...

Light-skinned Tut fuels the ire of activistSentins, scholars, Orlando Sentinel, Florida, USA, September 25.

The Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences, at the State University of Stony Brook, will be exhibiting a rare and unique portrait sculpture of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, the highlight of their Egyptology event.

The yellow limestone head was previously owned by a renowned American collector, who purchased it prior to World War II. It remained in his private collection for well over sixty years, until his death...

Ancient Egyptian Evening, SouthBay News, New York, USA, September 28, 2005.

A short interview with Joanne Salvador who recently became the proud owner of a 3,300 year-old statue of Tutankhamun.

What a Life, Newsday, New York, USA, September 25, 2005.

cf. Lindenhurst art collector finds 3300-year-old Egyptian sculpture.

A travel article from the pages of the Boston Globe.

A ribbon of butterscotch shimmered across the horizon, the final remnant of a glorious setting sun. Nightfall comes rapidly on the Nile, and the remaining feluccas hurried past, seeking anchorage before darkness. In three millennia, the single-sail, gaff-rigged vessels have not changed. Today, as in 1000 BC, they skim the water with seamless grace, still devoid of running lights.

From the pool deck of Abercrombie & Kent's 18-stateroom Sun Boat III, we gazed west across the Nile at a scene unchanged since the feluccas first sailed. Yet behind us, where our boat was berthed, sprawled the metropolis of Aswan, with 1 million residents and home of Egypt's technological marvel, the Aswan High Dam. It is the departure point for an equally compelling marvel: the transplanted temples of Philae, now enshrined on higher ground on the tiny island of Agilkia on the Nile. The setting epitomized what we had come to expect in seven nights on this river: extraordinary antiquities quietly coexisting in the shadows of an encroaching modern world...

Passage through antiquity, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, September 25, 2005.

It's been described as a place to take your doddering grandma, not a hot date. But when the rebuilt M.H. de Young Museum debuts in three weeks, you won't recognize the place. In the heart of Golden Gate Park, where the Bay Area's icon of classical art has stood since 1919, is a stunning copper-clad museum that already is raising the art world's pulse...

...But should traditionalists wince at all the modern twists, the inaugural traveling exhibit features treasures of the 15th-century BC Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs. Her reputation, incidentally, took a hit — before enjoying a modern revival.

Private effort gives new life to old museum, San Jose Mercury News, California, USA, September 25, 2005.

A leap into the daily life of Nefertiti and Rameses III will be offered by "The Five Senses. The pleasure of life in Ancient Egypt," the cultural event sponsored by the National Archaeological Museum of Florence – the Egypt Section and the Aboca Museum in occasion of the "European Heritage Days," dedicated this year to the culture of living. Realised with the help of the cultural association 'Arte-mide', the event (free entry) will take place on Sunday September 25, in the Crocetta Palace, home of the Archaeology Museum. It will be a journey back in time to discover the Egyptian people through their everyday life: the attention placed on beauty and hygiene, food, music and dance.

European Heritage Days: Florence to host Ancient Egypt, Agenzia Giornalistica, Italy, September 22, 2005.

Art collector Joanne Salvador, a resident of Linden-hurst, never imagined she would be the proud owner of a rare portrait sculpture of Pharaoh Tutankhamen.

Lindenhurst art collector finds 3300-year-old Egyptian sculpture, Amityville Record, New York, September 21, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni, a painter by profession, is no stranger to criticism. Over 20 years in office he has been among the most controversial cabinet ministers ... last week Hosni was blamed for the disastrous fire that broke out at the Beni Sweif Cultural Palace during a theatrical performance on 5 September — a tragedy that killed some 48 spectators and injured more. It was in the wake of that incident that he tendered his resignation to President Hosni Mubarak last Wednesday. Three days later, responding to the pleas of some 400 high-profile intellectuals, the president decreed that Hosni should resume his duties.

Profile: Farouk Hosni: Politics of temperament, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 761, 22 - 28 September 2005.

By Zahi Hawass

...Excavating under houses was a completely different and unique experience from any other excavating I have done. This discovery came through word of two young people who live at the town of Al-Bawiti, the capital of Bahariya Oasis. They told me that under the house of an old woman in the town their existed many decorated tombs. They took me to a house of this elderly woman. Inside this house was a shaft. By way of a rope, I was lowered nine metres down and I found myself inside one of these decorated tombs...

Dig Days: Treasures under the modern houses, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 761, 22 - 28 September 2005.

Jacqui Mitchell, age 14 Ojai

Re: Barry Pollack's Aug. 14 article, "Too much toot and not enough King Tut":

Mr. Pollack writes, "While I enjoyed the exhibit, my overall impression was that there was too much toot and not enough Tut."

I do not believe he understands the importance of the treasures being on tour again. In 1976-80, the Tutankhamen treasures toured the United States. They then traveled to West Berlin. The scorpion on the Goddess Selket, one of the four nearly identical figurines guarding Tutankhamen's canopic chest, was damaged. Top Egyptian conservators were flown over immediately, and were able to repair the statue of Selket. Soon afterward, Parliament requested the Tutankhamen treasures never leave Egypt. This year, Zahi Hawass managed to persuade Parliament to allow the Tutankhamen treasures to travel abroad...

Your letters: West county: Defending Tut exhibit, Ventura County Star, California, USA, September 22, 2005.

A fair item titled Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh is due to travel to San Francisco by the middle of next month.

"This item is among five archaeological collections to be presented by Egypt in the fair held in the United States for one year," said Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities...

Queen Hatshepsut fair travels to US, Arabic News, September 22, 2005.

With the upcoming international conference on museology opening in Alexandria the city can be proud of its latest gem, says Jill Kamil.

Alexandria National Museum in a 20th century mansion in central Alexandria is a state-of-the-art museum in which objects of all epochs are displayed in uniquely suspended showcases. When it was officially opened last winter it caused a great impact. How could it not? The building itself is an Italian- style mansion built in 1928; the objects on display are in diagonally-placed cabinets that do not detract from the elegant architectural features of the building and, what is more, they have not been seen before; they were hitherto in storage in the Egyptian, Coptic and Islamic Museums in Cairo and in the Graeco-Roman and Jewellery Museums in Alexandria. The collections on display in their sophisticated and well-designed setting, superbly lit and with well-placed and accurate labels, were praised by all. The launching was a great success.

Sad to say, however, the ceremony over, the museum saw few visitors...

Alexandria's elegant showcase, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 761, 22 - 28 September 2005.

Egyptian reliefs dating back thousands of years could disappear within a decade, archaeologists said on Thursday. As Egypt's population grows, agricultural land moves closer to ancient temples and funeral monuments. Water for irrigation is weakening temple foundations and eroding the carvings.

"We've seen it. We have photographic evidence of something we took a picture of 10 years ago and we go and take a picture of the reliefs now and they are simply not there," said Nigel Hetherington, an archaeological conservation manager...

Farming threatens ancient Egyptian sites, CBC News, Canada, September 22, 2005.

cf. Egypt's Pharaonic History Under Threat, EgyptElection, Egypt, September 22, 2005.

Dr. Rosalie David tests the Kittermaster Mummy at Manchester University.

Egyptian mummies are generally seen as the province of museums and antiquarian collections that keep their secrets bound close. However, on a cold February day [Genevieve Rolleston-Smith] found [herself] at Manchester University interviewing a world expert in Egyptology about the latest scientific techniques being used to unravel the mysteries locked up in these strange artefacts.

Together with a small group of students and teachers, [she] had arrived in Manchester following the rediscovery of an Egyptian mummy at [the] school. A pathologist, Dr Dick Kittermaster, had donated the mummy to Uplands Community College but, with changing staff and the passing of time, it had been forgotten and mislaid. ..

Was the mummy found on our shelf at school a murder victim?, The Telegraph, UK, September 21, 2005.

cf. Scientists unravel mysteries of Egyptian mummy, Manchester University, UK, February 22, 2005.

cf. Scientists unravel mysteries of Egyptian mummy, Uni Life Magazine, Manchester University, UK, Volume 2, Issue 10, March 07, 2005.

An exhibition “Pharaoh Art in the Egyptian culture” opened on September 21 at the cultural center of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Azerbaijan.

According to chief of the cultural center, Dr. Sayed Ghanem, ancient Egypt’s art emerged five thousand years ago astonishing people with its beauty and seriousness. Egyptian art is the vital period in the history of the world art.

In his address, ambassador of Egypt to Azerbaijan Youssef Ahmad Ibrahim Al Sharkawi noted that Azerbaijan-Egypt relations developed due the friendly relations of Egyptian president Mohammad Hosni Mubarak and nationwide leader of the Azerbaijan people Heydar Aliyev are successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev. He said there are some 30 historical museums in Egypt.

Then, event participants familiarized themselves with the exhibition.

Cultural Center of Egyptian Embassy Holds Exhibition on Pharaoh Art in Egyptian Culture, AzerTAj, Azerbaijan, September 22, 2005.

More on the discovery of the Cleopatra stelae, from Leuven, in a Chinese university museum.

A relief image carved approximately 2,050 years ago on an ancient Egyptian stone slab shows Cleopatra dressed as a man, according to a recent analysis of the artifact.

The object is only one of three known to exist that represent Cleopatra as a male. The other two artifacts also are stelae that date to around the same time, 51 B.C., at the beginning of Cleopatra's reign...

Cleopatra Found Depicted in Drag, Discovery Channel News, USA, September 21, 2005.

A group of Islamic Antiquities inspectors have jointly filed a police report complaining of the renovation of the Qaitbey Citadel in Alexandria, which according to them has damaged the landmark.

Culture in brief, Cairo Magazine, September 20, 2005.

Last week, Ahmed Ibn Toloun’s Mosque was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. The mosque, which took four years to renovate, is the second oldest mosque in Egypt and was built by prince Abu Al Abbas Ahmed Ibn Toloun in the 9th century.

Culture in brief, Cairo Magazine, September 20, 2005.

In its fight to regain priceless Egyptian artefacts, the Supreme Council for Antiquities has started a crackdown on websites that sell stolen monuments. According to Akhbar Al Adab, the council was able to identify 22 sites that illegally sell monuments for very low prices. The council has reported its findings to the public prosecutor in order to take the needed legal steps to reacquire the items.

Culture in brief, Cairo Magazine, September 08, 2005.

It isn't often that sixth-graders get excited about looking at ancient artifacts.

But students at Skyline Ranch K-8 in the Santan area are all ears as they prepare to sneak a rare peek into the past with a trip to the King Tut exhibit in Los Angeles...

6th-graders look forward to seeing King Tut, The Arizona Republic, Arizona, USA, September 20, 2005.

Visitors to the Jordanville Library on Route 167 are being met by an unexpected face these days.

Nefertiti at 15, a manikin bust, is waiting there. She is a creation of Donna C. Veeder of the Jordanville/Van Hornesville/Little Falls area. Veeder, a teacher and Arts Committee member with the Mohawk Valley Center for the Arts, Little Falls, specializes in portraits. Nefertiti is accompanied by a poster, which presents other members of her family, a sort of family tree. She was the stepmother of the famous Boy King: Tut, or Tutankhamun...

'Nefertiti at 15' greets visitors to Jordanville Public Library, Herkiner Evening Telegram, New York, USA, September 19, 2005.

In the tomb of Intef, a royal herald of the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (1500 to 1100 B.C.), there is a detailed mural of Egyptian winemaking. From the pictures in the mural, and particularly the captions in and under the pictures, we know many details about the way the ancient Egyptians made wine.

They were the first to use trellises, and the pickers reached above their heads to cut down the bunches of grapes hanging from the trellises. The grapes then were carried in baskets to the crushers, who stomped them in a large, raised tub, sampling the proto-wine and singing an ode to Rennutet, the goddess of the harvest. Over the tub was a beam with pieces of rope hanging down, like the straps in a public bus, which the crushers held onto for dear life to keep from slipping and falling...

Egyptian winemaking methods still very alive, Center Daily Times, Pennsylvania, USA, September 18, 2005.

News reports in Cairo said that the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak refused to accept the resignation of the minister of culture Farouk Hosni and decided to keep him in his post...

Mubarak rejects resignation of culture minister, Arabic News, September 19, 2005.

King Tut fever has struck. And soon it will be hard to avoid. At Trina, the restaurant on Fort Lauderdale's beach, a cocktail called a Tutini will be served. Starting in mid-December, the Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa will offer several new spa packages: The Sphinx, Queen of the Nile and Pharaoh's Ritual. And at the Day's Inn Bahia Cabana Resort, a King Tut Crab Cake Oscar will make its menu debut.

While we're still three months away from the opening of "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" at Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art, the Egyptian king is proving to be a regional marketing bonanza...

Tutmania already looks like a tourism bonanza three months before its premiere, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Florida, USA, September 19, 2005.

A team of Hungarian archaeologists, headed by Egyptologist Gabor Lassanyi, will conduct excavations in Sudanese Nubia — an area on the river Nile conquered by ancient Egyptians — the Hungarian news agency MTI reports. Work will be conducted close to the Meroe Hamadab dam, a huge hydroelectricity project which will turn a 174-kilometre stretch of the Nile into a reservoir, causing the local population to relocate. The dam will generate electricity with a capacity of 1,250 megawatts, tripling the country's electricity generation capacity.

The Nile valley has more than 2,000 archaeological sites and Hungary has in the past participated in expeditions, like the 1964 mission to Egypt to rescue an ancient palace threatened by the Aswan High Dam's construction.

Under a bilateral agreement the findings will be shared and the objects will be exhibited in Budapest's Museum of Fine Arts.

Sudan: Hungarian Archaeology Expedition in Nubia, AKI, Italy, September 20, 2005.

The disappearance of three items from the Egyptian Museum has prompted investigations that may be taken over by the General Prosecutor, according to press reports on Monday.

The three artefacts dating back to 2649-2150 BC were found missing September 7 – five months after being lent to the museum for an exhibition, the state-owned daily al-Ahram reported...

Antiquities go missing from Egyptian museum, Independent Online, South Africa, September 19, 2005, via ArchaeoBlog.

by Zahi Hawass

Many people from all over the world believe that the Great Pyramid of Khufu was built by men from the mythical land of Atlantis.   Others have different theories, involving aliens from outer space, for example.   None of these have any scientific basis.   Therefore, when we sent a robot inside one of the airshafts in the Great Pyramid, I wanted everyone to know that we were not hiding anything.   I have been excavating at Giza with my friend Mark Lehner for the last 20 years, and we have found no evidence at all to prove any of these theories.

On the other hand, we have discovered the tombs of nobles, officials, and priests who served the Egyptian kings of the Old Kingdom.   And we have discovered the tombs and houses of the men and women who built the pyramids for these kings.   These tombs and houses prove that the pyramids were built by Egyptians, not people from a lost civilisation.   In the tombs, we have found the names and titles of many pyramid builders.   The names are Egyptian, and they have titles such as "overseer of the side of the pyramid," and "overseer of the workmen who drag the stones".   Nearby are workmen's barracks, bakeries, a cafeteria, and a huge administrative building.   Up to 55 workmen slept in each barracks, and 11 cows and 33 goats, enough to feed 10,000 workmen, were slaughtered each day.

There was a core of permanent craftsmen and supervisors at Giza.   But the pyramids were built with the support of households from all over Egypt.   Families would send their young people to help with the construction, and in return may have been exempted from paying taxes.   We believe that the temporary workmen were changed every three months.

The workmen rose with the dawn and slept with the sunset.   They worked in ten-day weeks, with one day off, plus holidays.   They worked hard, and their bones show the evidence of physical stress.   But they were also cared for, with emergency medical attention available.   One man even lived for fourteen years after his leg was amputated.

The Pyramids were built by Egyptians.   These men and women must have been proud to be part of their national project, building eternal monuments to their god-kings.

Who built the Pyramids?, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, September 19, 2005.

Egyptian police have foiled an attempt to smuggle an ancient statue of Pharaoh Rameses II out of Egypt for sale to a foreign museum or private collector.

Security sources said Thursday that thieves found the granite statue in the region of Giza near Cairo in the area of the big pyramids and did not report it to the authorities.

Police were tipped off about the discovery, however, and policemen posing as art merchants convinced the thieves to sell them the statue for 4 million Egyptian pounds ($695,000).

The thieves, who planned to break the statue into several pieces to facilitate smuggling it out of the country, showed the disguised policemen to the place where they had been hiding it.

Rameses II, one of Egypt's most famous pharaohs, ruled ancient Egypt for 67 years between 1213 and 1279 B.C., and his statues are found in several parts of the country.

Attempt to smuggle pharaoh's statue foiled, UPI via Washington Times, District of Columbia, USA, September 15, 2005.

cf. Attempt to smuggle pharaoh's statue foiled, UPI via Science Daily, District of Columbia, USA, September 15, 2005.

Amateur Egyptologist Joanne Salvador of Lindenhurst recently acquired, with three partners, a rare and beautiful yellow limestone sculpture of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, who lived about 3,300 years ago.   "We had to follow clues to find this," she says, after learning that a private collector who owned it had died. Salvador majored in psychology and minored in art history at Stony Brook University, but acquired her passion for Egypt, she says, after watching Boris Karloff in the 1932 film " The Mummy" on TV as a child.   "It was my dream to find something.   I'm very lucky."   For one night only, 7-10 p.m. next Friday, the head will be on display at the Museum of Long Island Natural Sciences, Earth & Space Sciences Building, Stony Brook University.   The free "Ancient Egyptian Evening," which Salvador coordinated, includes the display of other artefacts, music and refreshments.   For information, call 631-632-8230.

On the Isle: King Tut to visit Stony Brook, Newsday, USA, September 18, 2005.

Google have launched a blog search engine.

Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively...

Google Blog Search.

Searching for Egyptology list my blog first and also as a related link! Yah!

cf. Google gives spotlight to blogs with new search tool, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, September 16, 2005.

More on the mummy of Sherit.

Researchers have uncovered the mysteries surrounding a 2,000-year-old mummy without peeling back layers of bandages or even opening the gold-plated coffin.

Using a state-of-the-art CT scanner that rotated all the way around the tiny mummified girl, San Jose-based Silicon Graphics Inc. took 60,000 images and created 3-D models that allowed scientists to look at her resin-filled body cavities, her facial features, even her baby teeth.

Led by a team at Stanford University, researchers also discovered a painting of a sphinx on the mask covering her mummified face.

The mummy — and her high-tech trappings — will be on display at San Jose's Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium throughout August...

Scanning tech reveals mummy mysteries, AP via Foster's Daily Democrat, New Hampshire, USA, September 13, 2005.

cf. Scientists Reach Back 2,000 Years to Bring Our Rare Child Mummy Back to Life, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum & Planetarium, San Jose, California, USA, August, 2005.   There is a good slideshow on this page also.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni yesterday tendered his resignation to President Hosni Mubarak, Al-Gomhuria newspaper reported Farouk has recently been under fire after a blaze at a theatre in the Upper Egyptian city of Beni Sueif had claimed 46 lives.

Egyptian minister quits, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, September 15, 2005.

...In Beijing, an international joint research group from the Catholic University in Leuven and Beijing University discovered a collection of Egypt art that was believed lost for many years already...

The find consists of over 50 stelae and 60 rubbings made with coal on paper.   A special find is a stela which depicts Cleopatra as a male pharaoh.   This is the second known example of such a depiction.   Majority of the retrieved collection are items belonging to the Greek-Roman epoch...

Stela depicting Cleopatra as male pharaoh discovered in China, Pravda, Russia, September 06, 2005.

cf. Leuvense research workers retrieve Egyptian artefacts in China.

More than 3,000 years [after Tutankhamun's death] the king remains a fashion icon, inspiring a new jewellery collection by Tamarac designer Ruth Hirtz that is the official jewellery line of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit...

Tut inspires Tamarac jewellery collection, MSNBC, USA, September 11, 2005.

The discovery of boy king Tutankhamen's tomb hit the headlines in 1923 as the most sensational find of its time.   But the discovery of several olive branches buried along with the pharaoh to help him in the after life is a much lesser known fact.

At the time a mystery surrounded what type of plant the branches were, so a professor took a sample and sent it to the Botanical Gardens at Kew to be named.

Botanists at the herbarium at Kew identified the plant as an olive branch, which still remains neatly pressed in the collection centre to this day...

Glimpse king Tut's olive branch at Kew, This is Local London, UK, September 12, 2005.

A piece about the upcoming exhibition The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt at New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A doctor is called to the house of a young man with a severe wound on his cheek. The flesh is split open, red and inflamed.

After assessing the damage, the doctor applies a special enzymatic cleanser to the affected area, then covers it in a bandage soaked in an antibacterial compound, to reduce the risk of infection. Chances are, the man will make a complete recovery.

While this course of treatment may sound modern, the doctor in question lived and practiced almost 4,000 years ago, in an ancient Egypt where skilled medicine worked hand-in-hand with magic potions and incantations to the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet...

Secrets of the Pharaohs' Physicians Revealed, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Texas, USA, September 08, 2005.

In 1885, a Presbyterian missionary in Egypt, the Rev. John Giffen bought four mummies still in their sarcophagi for the grand sum of $8 each.   The mummies had been looted from their tombs near the Egyptian city of Akhmim, on the east bank of the Nile about 290 miles south of Cairo.

One mummy went to the Asyut College Museum in Egypt, where it still resides, and the rest returned to the United States with the Rev. John R. Alexander and were distributed among three Presbyterian-founded colleges: Erskine College in Due West, [South Carolina], Westminster College in New Wilmington, [Pennsylvania], and the College of Wooster [in Wooster, Ohio].

Through Oct. 16 [2005], the College of Wooster Art Museum Ebert Art Center is presenting Ancient Ohio/Ancient Egypt, an exhibit that highlights artifacts and materials from two cultures that existed contemporaneously on different continents...

Mummies and more, Akron Beacon Journal, Ohio, USA, September 04, 2005.

The Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale has selected Edd Helms Air Conditioning & Electric, one of South Florida's top mechanical and electrical contracting firms, to perform the air conditioning improvements needed to host the King Tut exhibition, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, opening later this year...

Cool Improvements for the Coolest Exhibition of the Season, PR Newswire, USA, September 01, 2005.

A review of an exhibition of early writing at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne, Australia.

...18 pieces from the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne ... Compiled by its director Christopher Davey, these pieces illustrate different scripts and early uses of writing (the doings of kings, records of produce, official expenditure, names of troops, a land transaction, property titles) in a variety of materials (stone and ceramic tablets, linen, vellum and papyrus fragments)...

Early Writing in Egypt and Mesopotamia, The Age, Australia, September 06, 2005.

...Take the library in Alexandria. If any place might have had justifiable pretensions of permanence it would have been the library, founded sometime around 300 B.C., which grew under the early Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt into an enduring symbol of culture and knowledge before disappearing into the sand and sea less than 1,000 years later.

"This was the library," said Roger Bagnall, a historian at Columbia. "It influenced everybody who ever thought about building a library."

Nobody, Bagnall complains, knows how large it was — estimates range from 40,000 to 400,000 scrolls — or what was actually in it...

What is lost, archaeologists try to find, International Herald Tribune, France, September 08, 2005.

In November 1984, 136 kilometres south of Cairo, a young Egyptian archaeologist discovered what may well be the oldest book in the world.

Dating back to the second half of the 4th century, it was found in the tomb of an 11-year-old girl, placed underneath her head.   Hailed as the earliest complete book of Psalms ever found, it was hand-written in a dialect once used by Egypt’s first Christians Coptic Oxyrhynchus in Greek letters.

It took six months to separate the 252 papyrus leaves of the book, which were bound between two polished wooden covers with a leather spine, and years to restore.   It was finally put on display at Cairo’s Coptic Museum in 1992.

World's oldest book?, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 26, Issue 09, September 2005.

Thursday, October 20 [2005] at 7:00 p.m.

A Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Docent Lecture

The inaugural exhibition at the new de Young Museum highlights the art created during the glorious reign of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, who shared Egypt's throne for nearly two decades.   The phenomenon of a woman ruling a fundamentally patriarchal society and the omission of her name from later king lists have fuelled debate among Egyptologists for over a century.   Her reign (ca. 1479-1458 BC) was a period of immense artistic creativity and this unprecedented exhibition brings together a vast treasure of royal statuary, sculpture, ceremonial objects, furniture, jewellery, and other personal items.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Moraga Library

Moraga Library, 1500 St. Mary's Rd., Moraga, CA 94556-2037, (925) 376-6852

Julie Winkelstein: At the Library, Contra Costa Times, California, USA, September 01, 2005.

This lecture will recount the colourful life and career of James Henry Breasted from his birth in a small Illinois town to his rise as a giant figure in Egyptology.   2:30 p.m. Sept. 18. [2005] Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium, 1342 Naglee Ave., San Jose.   $10 for museum members, $15 for non-members, $5 for students and seniors with ID.   Call (408) 947-3636, e-mail info@egyptianmuseum.org or visit www.egyptianmuseum.org for reservations and information.

West Valley Guide: Lectures/Seminars, The San Jose Mercury News, California, USA, September 08, 2005.

The total collapse of the Egyptian state at the end of the Pyramid Age was followed by a period of chaos, from which sprung the Classical Age of Egypt, the Middle Kingdom, which ensured the continuation of Egypt as a united nation, and led to the time of the Empire, the New Kingdom.   6:15 p.m. Sept. 17. [2005] Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium, 1342 Naglee Ave., San Jose.   $10 for museum members, $20 for non-members, $5 for students and seniors with ID.   Call (408) 947-3665 or e-mail info@egyptianmuseum.org for reservations and information.

West Valley Guide: Lectures/Seminars, The San Jose Mercury News, California, USA, September 08, 2005.

Fri., Sept. 16 [2005], 6:30 p.m. "Ancient Kingdoms and Royal Mummies: The Facts of Fiction in Hollywood Cinema," an illustrated lecture by art historian and Egyptologist Christine Foessmeier.   Co-sponsored by the American Research Center in Egypt, Washington D.C. Chapter.   Rome Auditorium.

Weekly Calendar: Lectures, The John Hopkins Gazette, The John Hopkins University, Maryland, USA, September 12, 2005.

A veteran archaeologist, hailed as Scotland's "Indiana Jones", has discovered one of Egypt's most elusive ancient sites 3,000 years after it was buried in the desert sand.

Ian Mathieson, 78, director of Saqqara Geophysical Survey Project, has located part of a seven-mile ceremonial burial route to the Step Pyramid of Djoser, near Cairo.

Treasure hunters have long tried to pinpoint the Serapeum Way, and in 1798 Napoleon sent 1,000 men...

Scottish 'Indiana Jones' finds ancient burial path, The Scotsman, UK, September 13, 2005.

cf. University of Birmingham Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity.

The ancient Egyptians left proof of their scientific prowess for people to marvel at for millennia.   Their engineering skills can still be seen at Giza, their star charts in Luxor, their care for head wounds on Fifth Avenue.

...What researchers call the world's oldest known medical treatise, an Egyptian papyrus offering 4,000-year-old wisdom, has long dwelled in the rare books vault at the New York Academy of Medicine.

It is about to become much better known.   After a short trip down Fifth (insert down-the-Nile metaphor here) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the papyrus will go on public display, probably for the first time, on Tuesday, as part of the Met's exhibition " The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt ." ...

Secrets of the Mummy's Medicine Chest, The New York Times, New York, USA, September 10, 2005.

cf. Secrets of the Mummy's Medicine Chest, The New York Times via Wilmington Morning Star, North Carolina, USA, September 10, 2005.

The Louisville mummy's full name was Tchaenhotep.

Its heart and brain are intact 2,500 to 3,000 years after death, despite the fact that many mummies' vital organs were removed upon burial.   Tchaenhotep ... was excavated from an area of Egypt known as the Valley of the Queens, but there is no indication the person was royalty.

The mummy sustained leg fractures and a crushed pelvis in Louisville's 1937 flood, when rising floodwaters spilled it out of its coffin, separating the head and torso.   A piano ended up on top of the mummy.

These are some of the results of more than a year of analysis after medical tests on the mummy last summer and some additional research...

Analysis unravels more on mummy, The Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky, USA, September 07, 2005.

cf. Louisville Science Center, The World Around Us exhibit which opens on the 24th of September.

A book review from The Independent.

Not the most alluring of titles, but a fascinating story.   Smallpox appears to have an African origin.   Judging by his mummified corpse, Rameses V was a sufferer.   Brought back by Crusaders from the Middle East, it killed millions and disfigured many more.   The disease curtailed the Stuart line by killing Queen Anne's son in 1700.   A century on, Jenner, who grew up with immune milkmaids, used knowledge of cowpox to develop vaccination.   The last natural case was in 1977; it's still "a horribly tempting weapon".

The Life and Death of Smallpox, The Independent, UK, September 12, 2005.

Buy the book from .

When [Jim Regan] first started writing reviews for this space, about seven years ago, one of the first websites [Jim] covered was the Theban Mapping Project.   This online record of the excavation of "KV 5" (the largest Pharaonic tomb ever found in Egypt, with over 100 corridors and chambers) became such a popular destination for virtual Egyptologists that it was receiving some 18 million hits per year.   Since that time, the Project launched a major revision of its site — expanding its focus from a single tomb to the entire Valley of the Kings, and coincidentally, illustrating just how far the Web has come as a teaching tool in a relatively short time.

If you visited the original KV 5 site, you'll find a very different presentation in the new version — so different that it is, to all intents and purposes, an entirely new creation.   Even the domain name has been changed from kv5.com to thebanmappingproject.com, reflecting the wider mandate of the new site ... If you've never seen the original site ... you can still, shall we say, 'unearth' the original kv5.com, with the kind assistance of the WebArchive...

The mummies return, Christian Science Monitor, Massachusetts, USA, September 07, 2005.

The Temple of Hatshepsut is located near the city of Luxor in Middle Egypt, on the west bank of river Nile.   It is situated in a spectacular natural amphitheatre, the place — now known as ‘Deir Al-Bahari’ in Arabic — chosen by the queen's chief architect, Senenmut.

The Thebes mountains form the backdrop to the temple.   Archaeologist Neville discovered the ruins in 1891, which led to renovation work, stone by stone; but nothing matches the brilliance of the ancient master-craftsmen...

The queen's temple, The Hindu Business Line, India, September 02, 2005.

Warwick University, Coventry, UK, are running three open studies Egyptology courses in the Autumn 2005 term.

Details as follows.

Egypt: Discovering death in the Nile Valley

From the end of the predynastic period to the end of the Old Kingdom was arguably the formative period of belief in an afterlife in ancient Egypt which would continue, changed and modified, throughout all of ancient Egypt's long time-span. Architecture, funeral goods and skeletal material show the development of the funeral cult. Come and discover the fascinating and vibrant beliefs in death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt.

Tutor: Angela Torpey.

Starts Tuesday 27 September 2005 from 19:00 to 21:00 for 10 weeks.

And Starts Friday 30 September 2005 from 11:00 to 13:00 for 10 weeks.

Egypt in the 18th dynasty

The New Kingdom represented a highpoint of cultural achievement in Ancient Egypt's fascinating 3000 year history. With such personalities as Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun, this period saw the rise of Egypt's great empire and also the beginning of its demise. Looking at the many preserved royal and private monuments and a wealth of historical literature; this module will explore both king and court through this 'Golden Age'.

Tutor: Christopher Kirby.

Starts Wednesday 28 September 2005 from 19:00 to 21:00 for 10 weeks.

Further details including contact information and a registration form can be found here www.warwick.ac.uk.

Officials might try to deny it, but the recent terrorist attacks in Sinai were a heavy blow to Egyptian tourism.

Egypt relies on tourists and would like to attract as many as possible.   Major attractions have always included the pharaoh's tombs and the Red Sea's rich aquatic environment.   Now, Christian pilgrimage sites rank among those tourist destinations...

Egypt encourages Christian tourism, Sapa-DPA via Mail & Guardian, South Africa, September 13, 2005.

More than 250 stalwarts packed the outdoor event tent at Sierra Nevada College Wednesday to hear archaeologist Dr. Zahi Hawass speak.

As Hawass materialized wearing his famous "Indiana Jones" fedora after the audience viewed a slideshow of his life, anyone unfamiliar with the personal achievements of "Dr. Zahi" was well-versed in the Egypt's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities' accomplishments...

Archaeologist shares adventures, North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, Nevada, USA, September 09, 2005.

cf. Archaeologist brings Egyptian lore to Incline Village, AFP via San Diego Union-Tribune, California, USA, September 05, 2005.

cf. Famed archaeologist to speak at Incline college, North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, Nevada, USA, September 02, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni agreed to add three new sites in Al Qusser area in the Red Sea governorate to the list of the Islamic and Coptic monuments.

He said the measure is part of a plan to develop the ancient sites in the city and put them on Egypt's tourism map.

Qusser monuments on Egypt's tourism map, State Information Service, Egypt, September 12, 2005.

The history of mummies is a long and sad one.   Had Egypt’s ancient civilizations been able to fathom the degree of shocking desecration to which their dead would be subject, they might have thought twice about embalming them for eternity.   Mummies have been treated with the utmost disrespect: dug out, reburied, dug out again, sold, bought and even ground to make medicines or paint pigments.   They have been shipped around the world and put on show — their unwrapping staged as part of some circus-like exhibition.

One of the most interesting figures in the history of mummy unwrapping is George Gliddon, the American vice-consul to Egypt in 1832.   Gliddon was not particularly interested in the mummy business at first...

A Sad Obsession, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 26, Issue 09, September 2005.

An exhibition for Egyptian artefacts will be staged in three American states as of mid-October for three months under the title "Hatshepsut the Queen and Pharaoh"...

Hatshepsut visits three US states, State Information Service, Egypt, September 09, 2005.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on Monday night opened the Ibn Tulun Mosque together with Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni following a four-year long renovation project at a cost of LE 12 million.

Nazif termed the restoration of the mosque, originally built in 853 AD, as a great step in maintaining Egypt's heritage...

Nazif opens renovation project of Ibn Tulun mosque, State Information Service, Egypt, September 07, 2005.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said that the Egyptian artefacts being displayed at Dayton, Ohio, are unique and rare pieces.

Hawass said that all the pieces are original and that they were displayed abroad in accordance with law 117 for 1973 on protecting the monuments.

He said that some 30,000 people visited the Egyptian Monuments Exhibition in Dayton in one week, adding that 50,000 tickets were sold till now. He expected that the number of people who are to visit the exhibition would reach 400,000.

30,000 Americans visit Egyptian Monuments Exhibition, State Information Service, Egypt, September 06, 2005.

Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al Maghrabi is to meet with a delegation representing the Federation of British Tourist Writers on Thursday.

The delegation will also meet with head of Tourism Promotion Authority Ahmed Al Khadem.

The British delegation's visit to Egypt falls within the framework of cooperation with the Egyptian Tourist Writers' Society.

British support for Egyptian tourism, State Information Service, Egypt, September 05, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni had a telephone call with Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, currently visiting the United States.

...Hawass said he received two reports from archaeologists Suad Rushdy, who supervises the Golden Pharaoh, Tutankhamen, exhibition in Los Angeles and Hanem Barakat, who supervises Dayton exhibition...

Egyptian antiquities in US safe, State Information Service, Egypt, September 03, 2005.

A half million Americans visited Tutankhamen exhibition being staged at Los Angeles Museum for Arts during the past three months, setting a record for the people entering the exhibition.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that he received a report from Dr. Wafaa El Seddiq, Manager of the Egyptian Museum and Head of the Foreign Exhibition Committee in which she affirmed that the Tutankhamen exhibition in Los Angeles witnessed an unprecedented number of visitors...

500,000 Americans visit Tutankhamen exhibition in USA, State Information Service, Egypt, September 11, 2005.

By Zahi Hawass

As an Egyptologist, I have met many strange people. Some of them, known as "pyramidiots", have far- fetched ideas about aliens, lost civilisations and the power of the pyramidal form. Others want to drill inside the Pyramids. Some want to become famous, so they announce mere theories as facts. We live in a strange world.

Recently I heard from Jack Graves, a professor at the University of California...

Dig days: Surprise delivery, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 759, 8 - 14 September 2005.

Historic Cairo continues to shake the dust off monuments that once were the symbol of a great Islamic empire.   Nevine El-Aref reviews the latest revamped pieces of history.

Cairo is an unequalled treasure house of Islamic architecture displaying distinguished Mameluke, Ottoman and Fatimid edifices.   However, due to urban expansion during the past 50 years, many of the city's monuments virtually disappeared while others were largely neglected, thus turning them into something other than what they used to look like.   They suffered from leaking subterranean water, misuse of the surrounding areas by inhabitants, the deterioration of walls as well as a serious environmental threat from air pollution, a high level of humidity and decaying foundations.   Added to the problem was the 1992 earthquake which cracked the city's monuments, and forced more art work to fall or peel off.

The expected but still upsetting result: the original floors of some monuments completely vanished as well as parts of their mashrabiya (woodwork) façade...

Back to the original, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 759, 8 - 14 September 2005.

The metal spiral staircase leads to a room with 1278 manuscripts — 18 Persian, 46 Turkish, and the rest Arabic — all encased for protection in anti-acid boxes.   Haifa opens a grey box which reveals a 400-year-old Qur'an with beautiful gilded pages stamped by the royal blue emblem of the Ottoman Turkish Sultanate.   Another box exposes a medical book on "Poisons and Remedies" from 843AH (l439AD).   Haifa opens another box containing an 800-year-old book, dated 598AH (1201AD), written by the Arab historian Malik al-Nasr about the last battle between Salah al-Din and Richard the Lionheart.   Then she extracts a 1000-year-old book of the Hadith (the Muslim Prophetic Traditions) dated 418AH (1027AD) and flips through the worn pages...

Of manuscripts and thorns, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 759, 8 - 14 September 2005.

After five years of painstaking work, the splendid Ibn Toloun Mosque is again welcoming worshippers and visitors.   Nevine El-Aref attended its official inauguration.

When Ahmed Ibn Toloun decided to build an immense and sturdy mosque in Egypt's new Abbasid Al-Qatai (quarter) capital, he chose the solid bedrock of Gabal Yashkour at the city's core.   The mosque was to resemble those in Ibn Toloun's home city of Samaraa: a vast, imposing structure built around a courtyard, with arcades running along its four walls and engaged columns at its corners.

Its location was probably the reason why the Ibn Toloun Mosque survives today.   The solid bedrock on which it stands, and the site's relative elevation, have protected it from natural catastrophes ranging from floods to the more insidious threat of rising groundwater — if not always from the harm inflicted by human beings...

Islamic masterpiece, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 759, 8 - 14 September 2005.

Diarise the date of March 29 2006 for this is the day on which there will be a total eclipse of the sun.   Though it will be visible in various countries across the globe, in Africa it will be seen in Egypt, Benin, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Libya, Togo, Nigeria and Niger.

Of these countries, Egypt is not only extremely accessible, but is regarded as one of the cradles of civilisation.   It also has an ancient past mythologically linked with the sun.

...Egypt is one of the most tempting places to be when next year's total eclipse takes place.   Not only will its visitors have "front row seats" of the eclipse, they'll also have the opportunity to experience the many Egyptian antiquities...

Watch the sun vanish in Egypt..., Independent Online, South Africa, September 12, 2005.

Apologies for the lack of posting for the last week, I have been on holiday to the Isle of Wight.   I'll attempt to catch up with the news from last week and post all of the relevant articles.

I visited Osborne House whilst there and was surprised to find that it had a small Egyptian collection housed in the Swiss Cottage museum!

cf. At her majesty's leisure, The Telegraph, UK, September 06, 2003.

A tourism article from the Hindu Business Line.

During the ride from the Cairo International Airport, visions of desert sands, date palms and statues of ancient pharaohs brought to mind scenes of Ramses II's exploits from the Hollywood classic The Ten Commandments.   But when our driver Mahmoud, a proud local, pointed out the high-rise buildings and sprawling public gardens of Heliopolis, modern-day Cairo seemed far removed from the world of mummified cats and god-like kings...

Calling on Cleopatra, The Hindu Business Line, India, August 12, 2005.

The world of Zahi Hawass is filled with mysteries as old as time.

Excavating mummies covered in gold or helping determine the cause of a young pharaoh’s death are part of the detective work that make up the life of the archaeologist who now bears the grand title of Egypt’s secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Hawass, 58, will share his passion for the ancient past from 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday during a slide presentation at Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village...

Archaeologist brings Egypt to locals, Reno Gazette-Journal, USA, September 02, 2005.

... One show that's going to make a lot of headlines, but won't make its way to New York is the blockbuster "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," a show of roughly 130 artefacts from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.   It begins at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art this fall and will then move to Fort Lauderdale in December; Chicago next spring; and Philadelphia in 2007.   Many of you will recall the first King Tut exhibition, mounted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art back in 1976.   That exhibition was the very first museum "blockbuster," followed by MoMA's Picasso retrospective, in 1980.

Since then, it seems, museum shows, not unlike movies, are ultimately judged by how well they do at the box office, not by how well they serve our greater cultural interests.   The Met rightly turned down the current King Tut extravaganza - a show that is closer to a publicity stunt, designed to bring viewers in, than it is a scholarly event...

What You Won't See Here, The New York Sun, New York, USA, September 01, 2005.

A colossal, 4,000-pound, red granite head of Rameses II towers over visitors in the Dayton Art Institute's roomy Great Hall.

In another room filled only with golden objects, a mask, girdle, statues, plaques and thin sandals beckon with a soft, alluring gleam.

... including [a] stunning life-size replica of the oval-shaped burial chamber of the New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC).   It replicates every inch of the room down to nicks in the plaster and cracks in the ceiling...

A trove of Egyptian treasures, Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, USA, September 02, 2005.

This is the journey normally taken to see the burial chamber of New Kingdom pharaoh Thutmose III, who ruled Egypt during 15th century B.C.:

Fly to Egypt.

Travel 500 miles south of Cairo along the Nile River to Thebes.

Go west into the desert to the Valley of the Kings.

It's less exhausting and expensive, if not as adventuresome, to hop in a car, drive to Dayton, park in the lot of the Dayton Art Institute...

Drive right up I-75, find a pharaoh's tomb, Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio, USA, September 02, 2005.

In 2002, the Egyptian government tried to get the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to surrender a pink granite relief depicting a god; Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, sent a letter seeking the return of the piece, which is on permanent display.

But the claim was sketchy and confusing, says Suzanne Hall, spokeswoman for the Virginia museum.   Hawass' letter described the piece, supposedly looted from a temple at Behbeit el-Hagara, as a depiction of the god Hapi — but it's the museum's belief that the relief ... shows a different god, Khonsu.

Hall says the museum researched the sculpture's provenance ... and found no evidence that there was a problem.   Museum attorneys twice wrote to the Egyptian government asking for more information, and received no answer, she says.

When [Hawass] was in Los Angeles in mid-June for the opening of Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hawass told The Times that the theft apparently had not been reported properly when it occurred and that his staff was gathering information to support the claim against the Virginia museum.

Veteran of ownership disputes, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, August 28, 2005.

King Tut got me busted in the Egyptian Museum in 1989.   My wife and I, recently married, were visiting Cairo.   Romantic vacation — but I was also obsessed with an object I’ll call the Org.

I had first seen the Org in 1978 at the L.A. County Museum of Art, during Tut’s first visit.   Gold-plated and as tall as a woman, it looked like a tree trunk around whose single branch coiled the tail of (maybe) a headless, limbless animal skin, which hung straight down.   Its soft, unadorned lines resembled nothing else from pharaonic Egypt, with reason: The placard suggested that it may have been as remote to Tutankhamun as he was to us — over 6,000 years old.   Archaeologists didn’t know what the hell it was.   I had stood outside of time and stared at it.   Fascinated.

Eleven years later, Cairo’s dim and dusty Egyptian Museum was empty of patrons and filled with marvels, but I could not rest until I re-connected with the Org.   When at last it loomed before my hungry eyes, I worshipped it for only seconds before raising my camera to steal its image.   The flash was set to automatic — pop, whirr...

A Considerable Town: the Curse of Tut, LA Weekly, California, USA, September 02 – 08, 2005.

The Dayton Art Institute presents today The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. This exhibition ... represents the largest collection of ancient artefacts to ever travel outside Egypt.   It consists of more than one hundred objects that focus on the Egyptian search for the afterlife in a culture that existed 3500 years ago.   The objects — sculpture, jewellery and numerous funerary artefacts — reflect the Egyptian burial rituals, religious beliefs about gods and goddesses, concepts of the afterlife, and the pursuit of immortality.   Much of the exhibition dates to the New Kingdom period (c.1569-1081 BCE) and the life of a particular pharaoh, Thutmose III.   However, objects dating through the Late Period (c.724-333 BCE) are also included...

The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, Art Daily, Mexico, September 01, 2005.

The main thing to remember about what ancient Egyptians ate and drank is that they had beer.   Lots of it, from all the grain they grew along the fertile Nile Valley.

All right, that's not the main thing   but it certainly is another thing to like about the rich and interesting society whose workings are to be seen this fall in the exhibition of art and tomb relics at the Dayton Art Institute.   The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt opens Thursday and runs through Jan. 3.

While food is not necessarily an over-prominent feature of the artwork in the show, there are enough depictions of life in those days, thousands of years ago, that one might reasonably wonder how the people dined.   In such a hot and dry climate, being able to grow wheat and barley did help with beer, as noted.   Bread was a staple of the ancient Egyptian diet, along with stews and porridges made of grain...

Eat like an Egyptian, Dayton Daily News, Ohio, USA, August 31, 2005.

cf. Ancient Egyptian Alcohol and Beer, Caroline Seawright, Tour Egypt, April 01, 2001.

Has Startgate's bad guy come back to life?   Nope.   It's an asteroid called Apophis!

Asteroid's path could put Earth in its sights, Quad-City Times, Iowa, USA, August 31, 2005.