Legend has it Cleopatra was not just a seductive schemer playing a dangerous power game to keep her Egyptian kingdom out of Roman hands.

Apparently, she also invented the pastime of cruising.

Thousands of years before companies such as P&O turned water transport into resort-style fun, Cleo was using her womanly wiles to keep the Romans at bay.

After seducing Roman general Julius Caesar in her quest for power, the pair set off on a leisurely two-month cruise down the Nile, gathering popular support for the union and having a fine old time.

After giving birth to Caesar's son, and after Caesar's murder, she cast her potent charms on Roman general Mark Antony.

It was a rather cunning move, but rival Roman general Octavian defeated Mark Antony in battle, Cleopatra committed suicide and Rome took Egypt.

I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of the cruising tale, but it made a great yarn when told by our Egyptologist guide Sherif during a three-night cruise down the Nile...

Nile cruise to past glories, Brad Crouch, News Corporation, Australia, September 24, 2006.

Even if you can't see mummies on display, area institutions are offering plenty of fascinating activities, events and exhibits related to ancient Egypt.

From an exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts on the excavations of the world's first archaeologist to films, music, planetarium and family programs, the public will get a bird's eye view of Egypt. The events are organized by the FIA, the American Arab Heritage Council and a host of other organizations.

You can experience a chariot ride, courtesy of Kettering University students' engineering skills, and help construct a 6-foot mummy at the Children's Museum of Flint.

"Over the last several years, the FIA (Flint Institute of Arts) has organized collaborations with other cultural institutions on topics of mutual interest," said FIA director John Henry. The FIA is collaborating with nine other institutions over the next few months "to enrich the public's understanding of Egypt from the past to the present," he added...

Walk like an Egytian, Carol Azizian, The Flint Journal, Michigan, USA, September 24, 2006.

A tomb full of treasures

Before Sir William Flinders Petrie entered the scene, there were a lot of treasure hunters but no archaeologists.

In a way, Petrie was the prototype for Indiana Jones - the first archaeologist "anywhere in the world," according to Peter Lacovara, curator of ancient art at Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta.

"He's often called the father of scientific archaeology, having invented techniques that are still used today..."

A tomb full of treasures, Carol Azizian, The Flint Journal, Michigan, USA, September 24, 2006.

For more than 50 years, the 85-ton granite statue of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II has ruled over a congested square in downtown Cairo. But with the help of Dow’s VORACOR rigid polyurethane system, the 3,200 year old statue recently left behind all the noise, car and bus exhaust, and subway vibrations and was safely transported to a more serene setting at the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Egypt.

To protect the statue from damage during its 10-hour journey to its new home near the Great Pyramids in Giza, the statue was wrapped in VORACOR, a tailor-made rigid foam formulation suitable for spray and injection technologies developed by Dow Polyurethane Systems. VORACOR was selected because it met the specific flow properties, cell structure, compressive strength and density required for the safe transportation of the heavy statue.

“We were thrilled to be involved in helping to protect a historical treasure like King Ramses II that holds such great significance for the Egyptian culture and to the world,” said Juan Antonio Merino, general manager of Dow Polyurethane Systems. “While this application is quite unusual, it exemplifies our ability to develop polyurethane systems that solve individual customer challenges no matter what they are or where they are located around the world...”

Dow VORACOR Protects Ramses II On Its Journey To The Great Pyramids, Chemical Online, USA, September 22, 2006.

Science often brings us a startling new way of looking at the world, above and beyond the practical fruits of the laboratory. From the "Earthrise" photos taken after the Apollo moon landings to the first microscopic views of germs, research has a powerful potential for producing striking images.

To celebrate the phenomena, Science magazine and the National Science Foundation have named the winners of the 2006 Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, a bevy of striking images capturing new views of the natural world and the workings of science and technology. "The science community needs to discuss the enormous contribution good visual translations can bring to both communication and advancing the thinking behind the science," said contest judge Felice Frankel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in a commentary accompanying the winners in the current Science.

— In photography, first place honours went to an image of the interior of a child mummy residing at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California. Putting together some 60,000 computer-assisted tomography (CAT) images, a Stanford University team revealed that the unopened 2,000-year-old mummy case contained the remains of a 4 or 5-year-old girl. "The Rosicrucian museum has since named her Sherit, ancient Egyptian for "Little One." Her body showed no telltale signs of trauma or long-term disease, and so the researchers believe Sherit died unexpectedly," notes the commentary...

Science gets image conscious, Dan Vergano, USA Today, New York, USA, September 25, 2006.

cf. Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge 2006, Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, District of Columbia, USA, 2006.

Egypt has agreed that Bahrain can host a roaming exhibition of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in April. Egyptian Ambassador Dr Azmi Khalifa said Bahrain will be the first Arab country in Middle East and North Africa to host this exhibition which mirrors the golden era of the pharaohs.

The exhibition is currently in the US and will move to South Africa then to Bahrain and will stay here for six months.

Dr Khalifa said that assistant under-secretary for culture and heritage Shaikha May bint Mohammed Al Khalifa will visit Egypt to be briefed on the conditions of hosting such an exhibition.

Erm, this can't be the same exhibition — unless they are talking about 2008 — as it is in Philadelphia in April and then moves to London in November 2007.

'King Tut' set for Bahrain, Gulf Daily News, Bahrain, Vol XXIX, No. 191, September 27, 2006.