The Chicago-based Field Museum has invited President Hosni Mubarak to open the Golden Pharaoh Exhibition in mid May, "Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass said on Tuesday 23/03/2006 at a press conference in the New York-based Metropolitan Museum of Arts.

He added that Egyptian fairs in the United States helped increase the number of American tourists in Egypt.

He said fair revenues over the past three years reached up to EP86 million from 18 Egyptian fairs hosted by the US and Europe.

Moreover, the exhibition of "Hatshepsut from Queen to Pharaoh" is to open in New York next Tuesday, marking the 100th anniversary of creating the Department of Egyptian Art in the museum...

Mubarak invited to open Golden Pharaohs Exhibition in Chicago, State Information Service, Egypt, March 22, 2006.

The daily pleasures and challenges of the Ancient Egyptians are brought back to life in a new show at Turin's Egyptology Museum.

The exhibition centres on the lives of a wealthy couple, an 11th Dynasty (2,000 BC) King's Treasurer called Iti and his wife Neferu — but also evokes the existence of more common people.

The burial chamber of Iti's tomb, excavated in 1911 by Turin archaeologists, includes alabaster and terracotta vessels and a bronze mirror belonging to Neferu...

Ancient Egypt relives in Turin, ANSA, Italy, March 22, 2006.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's enormous, glorious show "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh" begins in the Great Hall with the Met's own colossal pink granite "Sphinx of Hatshepsut" (c. 1472-58 B.C.E.). One of the great pleasures of this exhibition, other than the fact that the show celebrates, for the first time, one of the greatest and least understood periods of Egyptian art, is that it frees up sculptures that can sometimes feel cramped in the museum's well-endowed yet overcrowded Egyptian galleries.

"Sphinx of Hatshepsut," like many other Met masterpieces included in the exhibition, has never looked better out of situ. Once part of a line of sphinxes that guarded Hatshepsut's great mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahari, across the Nile from modern Luxor, the 11-foot-long sculpture now faces the centre of the Great Hall. It depicts the queen/king as a sphinx with a lion's body and a royal portrait head, commanding the entire space with grace and grandeur...

Now, Hatshepsut: A Glorious Show Breaks Ground, The New York Sun, New York, USA, March 23, 2006.

After a long closure the Coptic Museum in Old Cairo is soon expected to be officially re-inaugurated by President Mubarak, Nevine El-Aref reports.

Serenity has at last descended on Old Cairo's religious compound (Mogamaa Al-Adian) with the roar of loaders and tractor that have blocked the entrance to the Coptic Museum during renovation gone for good. The Coptic Museum, with a limestone façade that bears a resemblance to that of Al-Aqmar Mosque, is being titivated for a grand opening. After 30 months of total restoration the elegant landmark is to have its official inauguration, completing the attraction of the area's religious centre which includes the Amr Ibn Al-'As Mosque, the Jewish Synagogue of Beni-Ezra and a number of old churches.

"This restoration of the Coptic Museum was an ambitious scheme," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni says. "It is one of Cairo's oldest, and [its restoration] is an indication of the government's commitment to preserving the nation's Coptic shrine, as well as its pharaonic and Islamic heritage..."

Face of Old Cairo restored, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 787, March 23 - 29, 2006.

The Nile stretches 6700km and 5000 years of recorded history. It is, quite simply, fascinating, and cruising from Aswan to Luxor is a fabulous way to see some sights.

Aswan is awesome. From massive Lake Nasser to the white-domed Nubian houses, from the Temple of Philae with its huge columns to the grand Old Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christie set scenes for Death On The Nile, it is indeed history writ large.

Among mind-boggling enigmas left behind by the ancient Egyptians is the unfinished obelisk — a 1000-tonne towering granite column.

It was abandoned when it cracked but how were the artisans going to move a piece of granite weighing as much as three jumbo jets? ...

Nile cruise to past glories, News Interactive, Australia, March 19, 2006.

A chance trick of the light has provided proof that the town of Al-Qasr in the Dakhleh Oasis was once a Roman fortress. Jenny Jobbins witnessed the evidence.

A chance trick of the light has provided proof that the town of Al-Qasr in the Dakhleh Oasis was once a Roman fortress. Jenny Jobbins witnessed the evidence.

The town of Al-Qasr, otherwise known as Qasr Dakhleh, lies in Dakhleh Oasis deep in the Western Desert 450kms due west of Luxor. Despite its remote setting it has had a colourful history: Romans exploited the oasis for agricultural produce; Libyans, including the Sanusi, made conquering raids; and it was not far from the infamous Darb Al-Arbain slave route. In the picturesque mediaeval section of the town narrow, partly covered streets wind past heavy ancient doors topped with elaborate lintels, and here and there through an open doorway can be glimpsed old grinding stones or a staircase leading to a crumbling roof...

Surface evidence, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 787, March 23 - 29, 2006.

A Polish archaeological excavation team, [from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology,] have unearthed the biggest brewery used by ancient Egyptians in the Nile Delta before the first monarch ever ruled the country, Egyptian minister of culture Farouk Hosni announced on Wednesday.

The site discovered in Tall al-Farkha in the northern province of Dakahliya on March 8 dates back to around 3500BC, a period known as Naqada II D and C, the minister said.

The Polish archaeologists, who have been working in the area since 1998, also discovered a cemetery with 33 graves belonging to middle and lower class ancient Egyptians...

Archaeologists unearth ancient brewery, Sapa-dpa via Independent Online, South Africa, March 23, 2006.

cf. Polish archaeologists unearth biggest ancient brewery in Egypt, Sapa via African News Dimension, South Africa, March 22, 2006.

cf. Ancient brewery discovered, Sapa-dpa via Finance 24, South Africa, March 22, 2006.

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed two 5,000-year-old wooden statues, complete with gold wrapping paper, believed to be the oldest such artefacts ever found, the team said.

The statues, which depict two nude men with precious stones around their eyes, were found by a Polish team, [from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology,] in the northern Nile Delta region of Daqahliya, said a statement by chief archaeologist Krzysztof Ciałowicz.

The effigies are believed to date from Egypt's predynastic era (3,700-3,200 BC), before Egypt started to unify under the pharaohs.

Cialowicz said his team had also found remnants of gold-coated paper that experts said was used to wrap the wooden statues, believed to be the oldest such artefacts discovered to date...

Oldest wooden statues found in Egypt, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, March 22, 2006.

cf. Ancient wooden statues found near Nile Delta, Sapa-AFP via Independent Online, South Africa, March 23, 2006.

cf. Archaeologists unearth statues, News 24, South Africa, March 23, 2006.