An Egyptian mystery to rival the cursed tomb of King Tut emerged this week at Forty Hall when a researcher from the British Museum contacted the Museum's Manager about some mysterious Egyptian figures in the museum collection.

The museum discovered the four valuable and ancient Egyptian Shabti, or funerary figures, in its collection; but as they had been there as long as the team could remember no-one knew who had donated them or where they had come from.

The Egyptian Shabtis are small figures of adult male or female form inscribed with a special formula taken from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which it is intended should be recited. They would have been placed in the tombs of pharaohs and other important dignitaries, to do work for the pharaoh in the afterlife...

Mummy figures unearthed in Enfield, Londra Gazette, UK, August 24, 2006.

It is only few hours that King Rameses II statue leaves its 54 years old location at Rameses square to head by midnight to his new location at the grand Museum at the Cairo-Alexandria desert Road.

Cairo and Giza governorates are getting ready for the move of king Rameses which is considered an important event.

King Rameses II to move Friday to the grand museum, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 23, 2006.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said that the Supreme Council of Antiquities mission has discovered five statues of sphinx each are as long as 120cm at the rams road, Luxor.

This discovery falls within the plan of the council to rediscover road which is one of the most sacred roads linking the temples of Luxor and Karnak, Zahi Hawass secretary general of the council said.

Five statues for the Sphinx discovered at Rams Road, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 24, 2006.

cf. Archaeologists find five headless sphinxes in Luxor, Dpa via Monsters & Critics, UK, August 24, 2006.

This Friday, August 25th at 6am local time, when Cairo traffic is at its calmest, the colossal statue of 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramses II will begin its journey from outside Bab Al-Hadid train station in Cairo to its new home at the site of the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau. For over 50 years, exhaust fumes from trains, cars and buses, as well as subway vibrations, have been damaging the 3,200+ year old granite statue at Ramses Square, its home since the early 1950s, when it was taken from a temple at the site of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis.

Archaeology enthusiasts, Egyptian history buffs, or simply anyone interested in great feats of engineering can witness Ramses' 24-hour journey from Cairo in Google Earth with the click of a mouse. This historic 16-mile relocation has been documented as a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) file which will overlay this route in Google Earth or Google Maps on the Google Blog at: googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/how-to-move-ramses-ii.html. In addition, broadcast-quality video footage is available from theNewsMarket at: thenewsmarket.com/Google.

Google Earth Fly-Over Imagery Available for Historic Move of Pharoah Ramses II Statue, Megan Quinn, Google Inc. via BusinessWire, USA, August, 23, 2006.

cf. How to move Ramses II, Sherif Iskander, Google Inc., Google Blog, USA, August 23, 2006.

The History Channel special "The Egyptian Book Of The Dead" focuses on perhaps the most famous known example of the scroll. It was commissioned by a temple scribe named Ani at a period around 1250 B.C.E..

This two-hour special is incredibly informative, and gives the viewer a real sense of both the history and tradition behind the scrolls known as "The Book Of The Dead." It also provides a nice glimpse of what it was like to track down ancient objects in the anything goes period of archaeology.

It's a real treat to watch, but my only complaint is that it includes a bit too much unnecessary padding. It would have been a much better 90-minute special than it is weighing in at two hours. Cutting the extra time wouldn't have excised anything of importance, and would have drastically increased the pacing...

Review: The Egyptian Book Of The Dead, Rick Ellis, All Your TV, USA, August 21, 2006.

Through Sept. 15, the Oriental Institute Museum will present an exhibit: Wonderful Things! Photographs of the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Harry Burton consisting of 45 of the images. The clearance of the tomb took 10 years, and in that time, photographer Harry Burton took more than 1,400 large format black and white images. The photos in this exhibit document the Valley of the Kings, the initial discovery of the tomb, the dramatic moment when the excavators first glimpsed the dazzling array of artefacts, the entry to the burial chamber, the series of shrines and coffins that protected the king, and the king's mummy, wreathed in floral collars and bedecked with gold jewellery.

The exhibit consists of 45 photographs with explanatory labels, wall panels that discuss the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the role of the Oriental Institute in its interpretation, the early use of photography in archaeology, the photographic career of Harry Burton, and how the photos fuelled the public relations campaign of the excavators and spawned the myth of the curse of Tutankhamun. Examples of the publicity generated by the photos will also be exhibited. A brief silent film made by Burton showing activity in the Valley of the Kings will be screened in gallery kiosks...

Visitors can view photos from King Tut excavation, The Northwest Indiana Times, Indiana, USA, August 23, 2006.