It's the end of an era as one of the North East's most famous museum is emptied, in advance of a £26m revamp.

The Hancock Museum in Newcastle is to be converted into a Great North Museum with cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

And the 122-year-old museum will close its doors for good on Sunday, with the natural history and archaeological treasures housed there being packed up and moved out in preparation for the three-year closure.

Over the years, visitors to the Hancock have enjoyed a host of exhibitions, exploring dinosaurs, creepy-crawlies, Ancient Egypt and cult TV and films, to name but a few...

The Hancock museum was recently the home of an Egyptian exhibition called "Egypt Revealed – Life & Death in Ancient Egypt".

Making history, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, UK, April 21, 2006.

Czech archaeologists have a chance to uncover a royal palace and a royal government seat from the Pharaohs' era in Abusir, Egypt.

Miroslav Verner, long-term head of the Czech archaeological expedition in Egypt, told the Czech Archaeology Abroad conference that the royal buildings were probably situated at the border between the Nile valley and large burial grounds.

Czech archaeologists have also uncovered a number of shaft graves in Abusir dating back to 530-525 B.C.

One of the large tombs they have studied belonged to admiral Wedjahor-Resne, labelled as "the traitor of Egypt" over his collaboration with the Persians, said Czech Egyptologist Ladislav Bareš...

Czech archaeologists may uncover royal palace in Egypt, CTK via Prague Daily Monitor, Czech Republic, April 26, 2006.

cf. Czech Institute of Egyptology.

cf. Czech National Centre of Egyptology.

The new issue of National Geographic Magazine is out now and contains a feature on the Gospel of Judas.

National Geographic Magazine, National Geographic Society, Washington, District of Columbia, USA, April 2006.

Subscribe to National Geographic Magazine via Amazon.com.

Polish archaeologists and conservationists working in Sudan will found a museum devoted to early Christianity in Nubia in the town Banganarti, where they will display their finds in the area.

The museum, scheduled to open in 2 years' time, will feature fragments of three early-Christian churches unearthed by Polish teams, the earliest dating from the time of Nubia's reversal to Christianity in the 6th-7th century, as well as portraits of Nubian kings.

Among the displayed relics will be parts of the onetime Archangel Raphael Church, one of the medieval world's main pilgrimage sites, whose basement contains tombs of Nubian rulers.

Poland builds archaeological museum in Sudan, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, April 24, 2006.

Blind visitors are now able to feel the magic of the Egyptian Museum, thanks to a special new gallery which will let them discover by touch the historic treasures.

The museum provides cards written with Braille, a system of touch reading for the blind, that explain all the information regarding antiques shown.

As one of the museums' educational role, the project aims to enable everyone to benefit and learn, especially blind people, Egyptian Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni said to reporters Sunday.

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said that a group of blind people and people endowed with eyesight participate in the project by training and explaining to the blind from all ages...

New ways to teach blind about civilization, AlArab Online, UK, April 23, 2006.

A discovery by a group of French and Egyptian archaeologists Tuesday revealed that Egyptians enjoyed a public cooking service 3,200 years ago.

The traces of that ancient civilization were found in the city of Luxor, where Egyptians prepared meals for workers of the Pharaoh tombs, and where remains of a school for workers' children, a butcher and vegetable stores.

Expert Sabri Abdelaziz confirmed they served the workers bread, meat and vegetables.

According to Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, the kitchens were built in western Luxor, near the "Ramesseum", funerary temple erected in honour of Pharaoh Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE)...

Egypt, Thousand-Year-Old Legacy Found, Prensa Latina, Cuba, April 25, 2006.