When Douglas Brewer ventured deep into the Egyptian desert this year, he expected to find possibly 100 examples of “rock art” — evidence of ancient civilization. What he actually found were well over 1,000 examples — a treasure trove of rock art.

The desert art, which was pecked or sometimes incised into large rock faces, depicted elephants, ostriches, giraffes, and many hunting scenes. But perhaps strangest of all was the abundance of boats depicted in the art. After all, this area was far from any body of water, says Brewer, a University of Illinois professor of archaeology and director of the Spurlock Museum in Urbana.

According to Brewer, this find may have raised more questions than it answered. “I went out to demonstrate the existence of the desert culture in ancient Egypt,” he says. But after preliminary evaluation of the rock art, it is hard to tell whether it is the work of an independent desert culture...

See also the works of Arthur Weigall and Hans Winkler in the Eastern desert. More recently the work of and with their Eastern Destert Rock Art Survey. A review of Toby's excellent book is reproduced from Ancient Egypt Magazine (Volume 3, Issue 6, May / June 2003) here.

An Oasis of Art in the Egyptian Desert, Doug Peterson, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Illinois, Illinois, USA, September 2006.

Thirty years of archaeological photography in Egypt, including pictures from a recent discovery, will go on display Saturday in “Ancient Places — Ancient Faces” at the Hocking County Historical Society, 64 N. Culver St., Logan.

The exhibit of photographs by George B. Johnson, director of Hocking College’s Archaeology Documentation Centre, includes scenes of KV63, a tomb examined earlier this year in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings.

An opening reception will take place from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, with the exhibit continuing through Oct. 22 [2006]...

Logan centre to show shots from Egypt, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, USA, September 28, 2006.

The great pyramids at Giza were used as waterworks for pumping water from the Nile to the vast fields, while the Cheops (Khufu) pyramid was the largest waterworks of ancient Egypt. In short, that is the essence of a theory put forth by Mikhail Volgin, an engineer from Kiev, Ukraine. Volgin believes he has unravelled the mystery of the pyramids that dates back to 26th century B.C. Well, the Kiev engineer is not the first one to generate similar theories...

Scientists and researchers produced lots of theories in an attempt to learn the purpose of the pyramids. Some theories claimed the pyramids were used as a tomb for the rulers of ancient Egypt. Others maintained the gigantic structures were used as observatories or equipment for marking water levels during the flooding of the Nile. According to a number of other theories, the pyramids were built for landing alien spaceships, storing grain, and damping vibrations in the earth’s crust during earthquakes.

Using the pyramids as waterworks is a novelty of sorts. Volgin lists the following arguments in proof of his theory...

Ahem, Pravda strikes again!

Egyptians used their pyramids as waterworks to pump water from Nile, Pravda, Russia, September 28, 2006.

"More than 500,000 Chinese visited the Egyptian exhibition of photography that was held here on September 5-25 [2006]," said Egypt's tourism counsellor to China Naser Abdel-Aal on Tuesday 26/09/2006.

The exhibition was held among activities marking the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Egyptian-Chinese relations, he said.

He added that the exhibition included attractive photos taken by Chinese photographers during their visits to Egypt over the past years.

He hoped the exhibition would help lure more Chinese tourists to Egypt.

Around 30,000 Chinese tourists visited Egypt during the period from January to July of 2006, according to official tourism statistics.

500,000 Chinese visit Egyptian photography exhibition, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 27, 2006.

A convicted antiquities smuggler has offered to return a previously unknown ancient masterpiece known as “Object X” to Italy in exchange for reducing the jail time and fines he faces for supplying loot to U.S. museums.

A famous artist from the ancient world whose work compares to that of Michelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci created Object X, says the convicted art dealer, Giacomo Medici, who is free while awaiting appeal. The object, which may be a statue, vase, or something else — he's not saying — is worth millions, he says.

“It’s something they can only dream about,” Medici, 68, says of the Italian officials with whom he’s negotiating to cut his 10-year prison sentence and 10-million Euro ($12.8 million, [£6.8 million]) fine. “And only I can bring it to them.”

Medici’s case is part of a broader prosecution that includes Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, who is on trial in Rome for conspiracy and receiving smuggled art...

Art Smuggler Offers Italy Mystery Masterpiece ‘X’ to End Trial, Vernon Silver, Bloomberg, New York, USA, September 25, 2006.