Based on attendance averages for this summer, Frist expects to welcome its 1 millionth visitor next week.

"It took us by surprise in a way because we've been so preoccupied by 'Egypt,'" says Rose Mary Gorman, public relations manager for Frist.

In fact, it is the intense popularity of "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" that has brought the million-visitor milestone around faster than anyone predicted.

"We're nearing one million very fast. A rough attendance estimate for now is close to 995,000," Gorman said Wednesday. "And, we're averaging about 1,100 folks per day..."

Frist Centre to celebrate millionth visitor, Stacy Smith-Segovia, The Clarksville Leaf Chronicle, Tennessee, USA, August 31, 2006.

Twilight settles over Cairo, as the sky fades to amber. The air is thick with the sounds of car horns, the rhythmic pounding of a work crew’s jack hammer, Arabic pop music blaring muddily from the speakers of tourist excursion boats on the Nile.

But ask anyone who has been to the swarming metropolis known as Al-Qahira — The Victorious City — to describe its signifying sound, and it is this — the call of the muezzins, first one, then another, until the approaching night is filled with a chorus of prayer.

Anyone who lives in an urban environment as large, as noisy and as agreeably chaotic as Cairo — whose total population, including its suburbs is around 16 million — knows there are moments that provide a sanctuary of reflection. For many, the call to prayer, heard five times daily here as elsewhere in Muslim-majority cities, is one of them.

Now, as ever, there is much to reflect on as a country with such a tremendous past struggles to embrace its future, living with the uncertainty within it and around it as it always has.

The grandeur of the age of pharaohs looms large over the modern hubbub. The ubiquitous monuments, such as the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids that rise above the rose-colored haze of the suburb of Giza, are a source of national identity and, in the most pragmatic terms, a vital part of the country's tourism industry that has weathered more than its share of storms...

Despite tense times, The Victorious City beckons visitors, Margaret Smith, Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, August 24, 2006. Part 1 of 2.

A Nile River trek offers adventures in tombs, temples and towns

Pushing gently against banks lined with fragrant fields of cotton and sugar cane, the Nile River may be the most famous waterway in the world, conjuring up images of a sultry Cleopatra basking on her seductive barge.

Despite such decadent connotations, throughout Egypt’s history, the Nile was and remains the backbone of a nation at work.

And, even a tourist observing from the deck of a luxury cruise ship can see this, watching as crops are tended by the fellahin — proud rural farmers, whose children smile and wave at every passing vessel. Dinghies and feluccas — elegant sail boats whose style dates back to ancient times — ferry passengers and goods back and forth...

A Nile River trek offers adventures in tombs, temples and towns, Margaret Smith, Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, August 31, 2006. Part 2 of 2.

cf. Photo slideshow A Journey to Egypt, Margaret Smith, Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, September 01, 2006. Part 2 of 2.

Earlier this week, while the red granite statue of Ramses II was making its slow way to its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum overlooking the Giza Plateau, rumours were already flying through Cairo about the fate of Ramses Square where the statue has stood for more than five decades. Some expected that the name of the square would be changed to Mubarak Square like the Cairo Metro Station beneath it, while others believed the statue itself would come under private ownership or sent on exhibition abroad.

Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir at once denied all the rumours and announced that Ramses Square would not be renamed. The 1,116 square metres where the statue stood from 1954 until last Friday, along with the fountain in front of it, would be temporarily planted with grass and trees complete with wooden seating. This, Wazir said, would attempt to create a small garden of rest for pedestrians until the completion of studies now underway by Egyptian experts to draw an accurate development plan for this chaotic point of the city. Wazir explained that the aim of the study was to relieve Ramses Square of its massive traffic congestion by providing more space for pedestrians and a wider area for the flow of vehicles. According to a Traffic Department study, 280,000 pedestrians and nearly two million cars and microbuses traverse the square every eight hours...

The fate of a square, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 810, August 31 - September 06, 2006...

The latest issue of Archaeology magazine is out now and contains the following articles of interest.

• Archaeology: The Next 50 Years
  by Brian Fagan.
  Will it be the Golden Age of Archaeology?
• Egypt's Ageless Goddess
  by Jennifer Pinkowski.
  A modern pilgrim visits the temple of Mut.
• That Air of Expectation, Still and Assured
  by Sarah Pickman.
  Egyptology pioneer Margaret Benson's history of the excavation of the Temple of Mut.

Archaeology Magazine, Archaeological Institute of America, New York, USA, Volume 59, Number 5, September / October 2006.

Subscribe to Archaeology Magazine via Amazon.com.

Downtown Cairo did not sleep last Friday night. Its streets were enlivened with the scene of a huge carnival, with hundred of thousands of Cairenes leaving their homes to line the pavements and bridges as they bade farewell to the red granite colossus of the 19th-dynasty Pharaoh Ramses II. The colossus, the central point of Bab Al-Hadid Square since 1954, was now making the overnight journey to its new home at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) overlooking the Giza Plateau.

As the 'royal' cavalcade rolled through the streets, where thousands of policemen were deployed in a bid to form a cordon allowing for the safe passage of the convoy, people stood at their windows and balconies waving, clapping, whistling and ululating to greet the pharaoh, while others climbed buses, cars and buildings trying to catch the last glimpse of this familiar downtown landmark. As he passed the Qasr Al-Dubara Church in Qasr Al-Aini Street, the church bell rang to salute the great king. "Ramses, Ramses, we are going to miss you!" "Grandfather, where are you going when you leave us?" "Love you, love you Ramses!" the people cried at every stage of Ramses's final journey to the GEM, where, it is hoped, he will spend the rest of his days.

Looking into the face of Ramses II you can easily appreciate his beautiful smile. "I think the king is very happy today," Zahi Hawass ... told Al-Ahram Weekly...

Ramses II's last journey, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 810, August 31 - September 06, 2006.