The Times have, what is ostensibly, a review of EGYPT: How a Lost Civilization was Rediscovered, Joyce Tyldesley, BBC Books, London, 2005, but appears to be more a write up on Petrie's life.

He liked to work in his underpants and ate only from tins, but Flinders Petrie changed the face of archaeology. Joyce Tyldesley on a neglected hero.

Egyptology has thrown up more than its fair share of adventurers and eccentrics. A forthcoming BBC series, Egypt, celebrates three of the most flamboyant: Belzoni, the former circus strongman who transported the huge “Younger Memnon” head of Ramesses the Great to the British Museum; Champollion, the delicate Frenchman who won the race to decode hieroglyphics; and Howard Carter, the Norfolk artist-turned-archaeologist who made the most spectacular discovery of all, the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Missing, however, although he features in my book relating to the series, is the “Father of Pots”, Flinders Petrie, whom most Egyptologists revere as the father of their discipline...

Reader in the sands of time, The Times, UK, October 08, 2005.

Buy the book from Amazon using the links below.

We have a fair idea of pyramids and sphinxes, but how many know the scents of Egypt?

The first impression I had of Cairo was that it's greener than I had thought. That was probably because the city sits on the banks of the Nile, the world's longest river.

Arriving there in early September the weather was pleasantly mild, not dry and humid as we had been told by our travel agent who also advised us to carry our own water bottles.

My tour began with a visit to Ptah Temple, 30 minutes drive from Cairo. The temple is the only significant relic still remaining of the legendary city of Memphis...

The highlight of this visit was a huge stone statue of Rameses II lying on his back. I walked around the statue and then moved on to the alabaster sphinx that flanked the entrance to the temple. It was the sphinx of Amenhotep II — four and a half metres tall and eight metres long — built in 1200 BC. There was another statue of Rameses II, this one standing...

Cairo cracker, Bangkok Post, Thailand, October 06, 2005.

By Zahi Hawass

Imhotep, the brilliant architect of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, should be universally remembered. He (transformed) the construction of the king's tomb from a mastaba (bench tomb) to a pyramid, and for the first time used stone in the construction. The Step Pyramid is in fact the first large scale structure to be built out of stone.

Imhotep's title was "the overseer of all the king's work". King Djoser honoured Imhotep by inscribing his name on one of his royal statues. In the Late Period, he was worshipped as the incarnation of Asklepios, the god of medicine. The Egyptians considered Imhotep a patron of the arts and recited his name before commencing any type of writing. Thousands of tourists visit Saqqara today to see his creation, the magnificent Step Pyramid. However, most of them are not aware of new discoveries at the site. I always say that Saqqara is a virgin site; almost every day we discover more artefacts, tombs, statues and even new pyramids...

Dig days: Imhotep: the first gifted architect, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 763, 6 - 12 October 2005.

ICOM's annual meeting in Alexandria last week was less successful than hoped for. Nevine El-Aref attended.

This year the ICOM [International Council of Museums] meeting was held in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina overlooking the Alexandrian shoreline. Its quadrilateral halls and corridors were buzzing with almost 200 Egyptologists, historians, restorers, curators and museologists from around the world, who were there to exchange recent museological theories, studies and private experience in developing and upgrading displays. The packed schedule included a variety of issues. Attendance at the simple opening ceremony was low, since it coincided with another conference on the dialogue of civilisations. In his speech Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca, said museums had unique potential for addressing and fostering cultural understanding in interdisciplinary ways and reaching a wide cross- section of the world's population. He called on all museum curators to play a role in building bridges of cooperation to achieve their goals and create a channel for civilisation and cultural dialogue...

All quiet in museum corridors, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 763, 6 - 12 October 2005.

One part of Egypt that perhaps to this day gets scant attention — the vast desert stretches of the Sinai — was in the news in the summer of 1937 following the theft of buried antiquities and a subsequent court trial which rendered a surprising verdict. Professor Yunan Labib Rizk follows the case of the stolen goods.

One of the rare occasions when the attention of Egyptian public opinion was turned to the "unknown" part of Egypt occurred in 1937. The cause was what the press labelled "The Ameriya antiquities case" which surfaced in June that year and continued until a ruling was pronounced on 24 May of the following year.

Little did Egyptians know that there was a wealth of Greek and Roman antiquities buried beneath the sands and that these were being unearthed and sold to intermediaries who smuggled them abroad. This startling information was confirmed by reports in the press of a series of "strange charges," as Al-Ahram described them, that were brought against a number of government officials who took advantage of their postings in remote areas for pecuniary gain...

The other Egypt, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 763, 6 - 12 October 2005.