Under the 11th and 12th dynasties of Pharaohs, the little village of Thebes rose to power, reuniting Egypt against foreign rule. Built on and around this 4000 year old site of ancient Thebes is today's Luxor, considered to be world's greatest open air museum consisting of the most excellently preserved monuments. Little wonder then that we were excited at the prospect of having a dekko of the fabled site.

We were on the last leg of our Egypt tour and our flight took off from Cairo to reach Luxor where we were to spend the last days of our vacation and take in the maximum of the architectural grandeur of Egypt. Luxor, as it is known today, comprises three main areas: the city of Luxor, the village of Karnak and the ever interesting West Bank of Nile which has the Valley of Kings.

We started our tour with a visit to the Luxor temple. Sharia al-Mahatta is the main avenue to the temple of Luxor and the other two main roads that bisect this city are the Karnak temple road and the Corniche. Incidentally, the mummification museum at the Corniche is the place to go if you are interested in knowing the secrets of this branch of science. The small museum exhibits a well preserved mummy as well as mummified animals...

Bygone glory immortalised, Economic Times of India, India, January 19, 2006.

The Sahara has not always been the arid, inhospitable place that it is today — it was once a savannah teeming with life, according to researchers at the Universities of Reading and Leicester.

Eight years of studies in the Libyan desert area of Fazzan, now one of the harshest, most inaccessible spots on Earth, have revealed swings in its climate that have caused considerably wetter periods, lasting for thousands of years, when the desert turned to savannah and lakes provided water for people and animals.

This, in turn, has given us vital clues about the history of humans in the area and how these ancient inhabitants coped with climate change as the land began to dry up around them again.

In their article ‘Ancient lakes of the Sahara’, which appears in the January-February issue of American Scientist magazine, Dr Kevin White of the University of Reading and Professor David Mattingly of the University of Leicester explain how they used satellite technology and archaeological evidence to reveal new clues about both the past environment of the Sahara and of human prehistory in the area...

Ancient lakes of the Sahara, Innovations Report, USA, January 19, 2006.

The huge sails fluttered in the gentle breeze. The silence interspersed with the occasional cacophony of a flock of birds flying overhead and the unavoidable excited chatter of tourists echoed through the tranquil waters of the River Nile.

I sat mesmerised, watching the receding reflections on the water as the red orb disappeared below the horizon, setting the sky aflame in rich hues of red and orange. The silhouettes of other feluccas (traditional sailboats) against this backdrop completed the picture. Sunsets are generally arresting, but the experience of the sunset cruise on the Nile at Luxor was like having a picture postcard come to life. It was certainly one of the highlights of my whistle-stop tour of one and a half days of this popular tourist destination in Egypt.

Luxor, described as the world's greatest open-air museum is chock-a-block with ancient monuments, the scale and the grandeur of which are mind-boggling and sure to evoke interest even if you are not a history buff...

Jewel Of The Nile, fe Business Traveller, India, January 20, 2006.

... The Meroe Dam Administration in Khartoum finally gave The Irish Times — through the intervention of Dr Salah Mohamed Ahmed, field director of the National Commission for Antiquities and Museums (NCAM) — permission to visit the area over Christmas. Living conditions for the peasants on the Nile bank in the Nubian desert and the numerous islands on the Nile are still very much as they were 2000 years ago.

Even though the Sudanese authorities are concerned about another region of strong opposition to the Khartoum government, Dr Salah said it was important to show the world the groundbreaking results of the archaeological salvage campaign in the Fourth Cataract area. This is the home of the civilisations of ancient Kush and medieval Christian Nubia...

Nubians will be displaced from ancient seat by lake built for dam, Sudan Tribune, Sudan, January 04, 2006.

... For the last few years, Egypt’s capital Cairo has been getting a few showers, especially during winter. It’s been bothering a few people — Egypt, which rarely, if ever, gets rainfall, is now genuinely worried about pollution and the Greenhouse effect. But the rest of Egypt thinks it’s a good omen — a sign of good times to come. In Egypt, like in India, the rains are God’s way of saying everything’s all right.

Cairo, in many ways, reflects Mumbai’s spirit. It is easily Egypt’s busiest city, and its people — seven million — have just one mission — how to lead a better life with limited resources, even if it comes by peddling wares at Khan el Khalili, the premier market where fake Rolexes (10 Egyptian pounds) share shelves with genuine glassware (50 pounds upward). Indians are often given “Amitabh Bachchan discounts” — if India adores its superstar, Egypt worships him. If you are from Amitabh’s land, they might as well take you as a sibling. He is as big as Egypt’s own superstar — Omar Sharif...

Mummy returned, DNA, India, January 07, 2006.

Tourist and Antiquities Police have taken charge of a number of rocky above-ground tombs and a number of underground tombs, dating to a late Pharaonic dynasty.

Said Mohamed, who holds a technical diploma and owns a piece of agricultural land in el-Ayyat, was digging for antiquities on his land, when he stumbled across the tombs and some human bones.

He also discovered a manmade well that had been blocked up, as well some large potsherds. Antiquities experts have concluded that Said has come across an ancient cemetery, describing the find as 'significant'.

Said's significant cemetery, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, January 20, 2006.

This Dutch language news article relates to the SCAs attempts to recover a stolen Stelae from the collection of the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL). The SCA has threatened to stop all Belgian excavations in Egypt if this is not resolved.

The stelae was stolen, according to the SCA, in 1965, from the tomb of Senenu at Saqqara, a high ranking official from the fifth dynasty.

Egypte jaagt op illegale archaeologica , Gazet van Antwerpen and De Standaard via Archeonet Vlaanderen, January 10, 2006.

This relates back to these previous blog entries from July 2005 Egypt may halt digs if artefacts not returned and Bid for return of 2 ancient paintings.

With time running out before the official re-opening of the Coptic Museum, Jill Kamil is guided through the state-of-the-art, tourist-friendly structure that accommodates the richest collection of Coptic antiquities in the world.

"The two wings of the museum are now connected by a corridor," says Gawdat Gabra, Egypt's foremost Coptologist and former director of the Coptic Museum, as he hurries me across the garden. We had met by appointment at the still-closed gateway, and he spoke as he sped ahead of me and sprinted down the stairs in front of the museum entrance. He had warned me that he could only give me half an hour of his time and, from the rate he was moving and talking at the same time, it was clear that he intended to give no more. "This is a totally new concept," he said. "For the first time there will be a smooth flow of visitors through the two wings of the museum because a corridor provides a link between them. There is a lift for the handicapped, and ramps for wheelchairs. No other museum in the world can boast such an exclusive collection of Coptic antiquities as ours, but it has not been our aim to put all our 14,000 objects on display. It has been to combine medium and subject matter, carefully to select each object for display and group them in a manner that casts light on Egypt's rich Coptic heritage and its continuity."

We pass through the entrance hall, still under construction ("it will be equipped with information desk, maps, graphic designs and books"), turn to the left, and on each side of the doorway leading to the first gallery we are confronted by a Coptic masterpiece...

Coptic Museum countdown, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 778, January 19 - 25, 2006.