Near the ruins of Memphis, this country's ancient capitol, and the necropolis where the first man-made stone building still stands, an ancient art is being preserved by 21st century Egyptians.

Boys and girls as young as age 10 are learning carpet maker's skills at some 200 carpet schools around Egypt.

With confounding speed, they tie threads of silk and wool into millions of knots in intricate patterns that become coveted Persian rugs, known now as Oriental carpets.

"The difference between carpet schools and factories is that children here also are taught to read and write." says Eid Faid, assistant manager at Oriental Carpet School, one of about 10 such schools in this agricultural area an hour from Cairo...

Carpet schools keep ancient Egyptian art alive, Toni Reinhold, Reuters, UK, September 29, 2006.

Still on its global tour, “Mummy: The Inside Story” manages to unwrap some of the mysteries surrounding Nesperennub, a 2,800-year-old Egyptian priest without touching a single bandage. Though he lies in his mummy case, undisturbed for nearly three millennia, computerized tomography scanning gives us an intimate 3-D look into his history, from his bad teeth to the bowl the embalmers managed to get stuck to his head and just left there.

The exhibition, with this and other mummies, mummy cases, a 20-minute 3-D film and other exhibits from the British Museum in London, will be on display from Oct. 7 to Feb. 18 [2007] at the National Science Museum in Tokyo's Ueno Park.

Launched by the British Museum, “Mummy: The Inside Story” has won acclaim around the world. I saw the 3-D film in May in Madrid.

The 3-D images that seem to bring the ancient mummy to life are the fruits of a cooperative undertaking by the British Museum and the British branch of the California-based computer graphics firm Silicon Graphics Inc...

CT-scan film reveals mummy mysteries, Keiichiro Inoue, Asahi Shimbun, Japan, September 29, 2006.

The Village Community Associates of the Art Institute of Chicago will offer a program Friday, Sept. 29 [2006], at the Hinsdale Public Library, 20 E. Maple St. Coffee will be served at 9:45 a.m. followed by the seminar.

The lecture, presented by Thomas F. Mudloff with The Field Museum in the Egyptology / Biblical Studies Department, will focus on the magic of ancient Egypt and King Tutankhamen. In an effort to better understand this period and to enhance the appreciation of the objects displayed in the Tut exhibit, this program will be presented in a multimedia format...

Lecture explores King Tut exhibit, Liberty Suburban Life, Illinois, USA, September 27, 2006.

Throughout the holy month of Ramadan the historic sites of Al-Ghouri complex, Beit Al-Harrawi, Al-Seheimi and Taz Palace, as well as Talaat Harb Library in Al-Sayeda Nafisa district, Al-Manesterli Palace in Al-Rowda Island and the Alexandria Creativity Centre will host several cultural activities, concerts and dance performances to celebrate Ramadan nights. Sponsored by the Cultural Development Fund, all performance are free of charge except at Al-Manesterli Palace...

Lively cultural nights, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 814, September 28 - October 04, 2006.

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.

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.

Two international consortiums are now waiting for the final answer as to who will be responsible for the management of the construction and operation of the new Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM).

The museum administration reviewed the presentations of the two companies on Wednesday and will announce the winner soon. According to a museum official, the project manager should be on board by the end of this year.

The Ministry of Culture announced the project management and construction bid to qualified project management firms in August 2003. In mid-October 2003, tender documents were submitted by 15 project management firms. Following a pause initiated by the Ministry of Culture in May 2004 to study the founding proposal, the bid was resumed. Then the applicants were narrowed to a field of two: The Japan-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI) and the EHAF-led consortium...

Museum project to be awarded soon, Sarah El Sirgany, The Daily Star, Egypt, September 16, 2006.

After a 2,000-year lapse, Egypt is looking to again acquire a gold-mining industry by revisiting ancient deposits of the precious mineral that symbolised the glory of the Pharaohs...

In the early 1990s, [Josef al-Raghy's] father Sami ... was inspired to look into the Red Sea Hills' mining potential when he saw an old papyrus map dating back to 1,200 BC in a Turin museum.

The ancient document, believed to be the oldest geological map in the world, showed the locations of ancient pharaonic mines in the inauspicious desert which stretches from the Nile south of Luxor to the Red Sea...

In Pharaohs' footsteps, Egypt eyes new gold-mining era, AFP via Turkish Press, Turkey, September 24, 2006.

cf. previously on this blog: Pharaonic Goldmine.

An Egyptian mummy dating back thousands of years is to go on display at Frankie Howerd's former home.

The mummy and other Egyptian artefacts were presented to the comedy legend in the 1970s after he appeared in a tourism advertising campaign.

Priceless gifts from the Italian Government which include paintings and statues will also be on display at Wavering Down House in Cross at the Up Pompeii show on September 23 [2006].

The artefacts used to be kept in a bomb shelter in the grounds of the house until they were valued and sent to London to be stored...

Frankie's Roman relics revealed, Weston & Somerset Mercury, UK, September 21, 2006.

Frankie Howerd website.

While carrying out a survey on the archaeological valleys and hills on Luxor's West Bank, in an attempt to locate sites used by the Copts, an archaeological mission of the French Institute for Oriental Studies has unearthed a significant number of clay sherds dating back to the Coptic era (451 - 641 AD).

The survey also aimed at drawing an archaeological map for these Coptic sites by using the GPS technique as well as documenting and studying all inscriptions and potteries found. The General Director of Antiquities in Upper Egypt, said that the team also found several objects, dating back to the ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Coptic eras.

In Haggag Valley Aspaniya, the team succeeded in locating six Coptic archaeological sites, one of which includes a cave with bent corridors covered with gypsum and bearing Coptic inscriptions...

Coptic artefacts found in Luxor, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 24, 2006.

So many Jewish cultic practices come from ancient Egypt that it's not surprising to see Egyptian monuments showing the Pharaoh wearing a headdress that looks like the tefillin — phylacteries — worn during prayer by observant Jews.

In many depictions, Pharaoh is shown wearing a snake crown from which there projects above his brow a sacred asp or viper and a cobra in aggressive attitudes. They represent the Pharaoh's power of protecting his land by means of serpents that can both defend the land and attack the enemy when necessary.

Such powers were essential to the rulers of Egypt, whose rich but extended land was always in danger of invasion from the less fortunate peoples of the surrounding deserts.

The deities that supported the Pharaoh also wore appropriate headgear, but in their case not on the brow but further up on the head, above the hairline. In many cases this headgear was in the form of an animal's head, such as the jackal or the ibis-bird; but in some cases it was just a small black box on a black plate.

Was this a form of tefillin..?

Essay: Tefillin - made in Egypt?, Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg, Jerusalem Post, Israel, August 31, 2006.

From September 22 until January 21 [2007], a spectacular exhibition at Basel's Antiquities Museum looks at burial rituals in old Egypt. The highlight of the exhibition is the burial chamber of Tuthmosis III, one of the most important pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. A facsimile of the burial chamber has been built in the museum and supplemented with original objects, giving visitors the chance to take a breathtaking trip back in time.

A pharaoh's grave in Basel, SwissInfo, Switzerland, September 21, 2006.

An electronic scan of a 2,000-year-old mummy has allowed researchers to examine its insides while leaving the body intact.

The mummy, in the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San José, California, is that of a four or five-year-old girl who has been nicknamed Sherit, meaning Little One in Ancient Egyptian. The project, led by a team from Stanford University, was named a winner in the Science and Engineering Visualisation Challenge awards this week.

That's the entire article but there is a picture on The Times website.

Scan reveals mummy's tummy, The Times, UK, September 22, 2006.

Spanish Egyptologists were in La Laguna last week to attend a congress hosted by the university, one of the few in Spain which boasts a department of Egyptology.

And it was the university’s plain-speaking professor of archaeology, Antonio Tejera Gaspar who grabbed the headlines when he took the opportunity to once again call into question the origins of the pyramids at Güímar.

And though he discounted any direct linkage between the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canary Islands and the ancient Egyptians, a theory based on their love of mummifying their dead and which has gained ground in recent years, the professor admitted that an indirect relationship was possible.

“There is no doubt about the north African origins of the inhabitants of these islands,” he said...

Egyptologists meet in La Laguna, Tenerife News, Tenerife, Spain, September 22, 2006.

Egypt has lured tourists via the Pharaoh’s route. Holding on to three thousand years of ancient civilization, Egyptian tourism leaders promote campaigns to heighten popularity of ancient history to bolster culture tourism. The ministries of tourism and culture have put antiquities high on the agenda. Together today, they speed up projects for expanding museums to preserve heritage, at the same time, raise archaeological awareness among locals and tourists.

More visitors are thrust upon Pharaonic ruins, medieval architecture, Islamic and Holy Family landmarks, even millennia-old Coptic monasteries on both sides of the Red Sea. Classic tours continue to lure guests despite Upper Egypt’s sweltering heat in the summer months.

In Luxor, meaningful discoveries have been made of late much to the industry’s delight. Latest finds have done well in tantalizing huge audiences and captivating media attention. 2006 has been an incredible year for a nation whose ancient treasures are still buried in the sand — some 75 percent remains unearthed until today. Although while some are still off-limits to tourists, they nevertheless create enough sensation as they line previously-excavated sites long open to the public.

For instance, just across famous Boy King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Qena in Luxor is KV63. It revealed itself early this year...

Deep in the Valleys of Pharaonic Egypt, Hazel Heyer, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, September 21, 2006.

There are many foreigners who live among us for years and never have an effect on our lives. Others, however, have made important contributions and have left their mark on this country. In the field of diplomacy, I have been a good friend to many ambassadors who have fallen in love with Egypt. When their terms are up and they must leave, I can see the tears in their eyes, as if they were saying good-bye to a lover.

One of these ambassadors is a unique man. He is a kind man with a soft heart, who is fair not only to his own country, but to everyone. His name is Martin Kobler, and he has been the ambassador from the Federal Republic of Germany to Egypt for the past four years. He was so enamoured of the Pyramids that I gave him special permission to run every day in the desert south of the Giza Plateau. Ambassador Kobler left us only a few weeks ago. When he came to my office to say good-bye, I was the one with tears in my eyes.

Kobler came to Egypt as ambassador at about the same time as I became the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and we met on many occasions. The first time was in the apartment in Zamalek where he stayed before he moved to the residence attached to the German Embassy. At that time, I was fighting for the return of the famous bust of Nefertiti, which was smuggled illegally out of Egypt in 1912 and is now in the Berlin Museum. Ambassador Kobler never criticised or disagreed with me; on the contrary, he made it clear that he understood my position and sympathised with my desire to have the bust returned. At the same time, he did state that the bust was the centrepiece of the collection at the Berlin Museum, and that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the museum to agree to let it leave Germany.

When at the recent opening of an underwater archaeology exhibition at the Berlin Museum I delivered my remarks in front of President Hosni Mubarak and President Köhler of Germany, I mentioned that the centennial of archaeological cooperation between Germany and Egypt would be in November of 2007. We at the SCA are working with Günter Dreyer, director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAIK), to mark this event with a very special celebration...

Dig Days: A generous spirit, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 813, September 21 - 27, 2006.

cf. Martin Kobler: We are all ears, Gamal Nkrumah, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 779, 26 January 26 - February 01, 2006.

Among the most important objects on show in Turin is the Turin King List, also known as the Turin Royal Canon. This unique papyrus is written in heretic, and owes its modern name to its being exhibited in the Egyptian Museum at Turin.

The papyrus has broken into more than 160 very small fragments, many of which have been lost. When it was discovered in the Theban necropolis by the Italian traveller Bernardino Drovetti in 1822 it was largely intact, but by the time it had been added to the collection in the Turin museum, its condition had severely deteriorated.

The importance of this papyrus was first recognised by the French Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion. The papyrus, now estimated at 1.7m long and 0.41m high, was written during the long reign of Ramses II and comprises on the recto an unknown number of pages that carry a list of names of persons and institutions, along with what appears to be the tax-assessment of each.

It is, however, the verso of the papyrus that has attracted the most attention, as it contains a list of gods, demi-gods, spirits, mythical and human kings who ruled Egypt from the beginning of time presumably until the composition of this valuable document...

Turin's king list, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 813, September 21 - 27, 2006.

cf. Discussion and translation Turin's king list, Jacques Kinnaer, The Ancient Egypt Site.

, Alan H. Gardiner, Griffith Institute, UK, pp. 40, 1959 reprinted 1988.

The splendour of the ancient Egyptian civilisation is legendary. For centuries it has been a source of inspiration for travellers, archaeologists, historians, scientists and even looters. At the turn of the 18th century several foreign excavators, marvelling at the beauty of the ancient Egyptians' art and architecture, explored the country in search of the archaeological heritage long buried under the sand. Some of the glowing artefacts they found, which reflect the long saga of Egypt's past, were taken abroad as the law at that time permitted their sale in bazaars and even at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The law also enabled foreign expeditions to share in Egypt's heritage through the implementation of the division policy, which permitted the division of newly-discovered artefacts between the foreign excavating team and the Egyptian government.

Such collections led to the treasures of Egypt being exhibited in museums all over the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the British Museum in London and the Egyptian Museum in Turin. Egyptians, however, had to travel abroad in order to see these distinguished objects from their past.

Some of these important pieces will now be available for a virtual viewing to all and sundry on the "Eternal Egypt" website. Early this week, following a protocol signed between the Egyptian Museum of Turin and the Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) — affiliated to the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and supported by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology — masterpieces in the ancient Egyptian Museum of Turin will be posted on Eternal Egypt. It is the first time a collection from abroad has been included on an Egyptian website...

Virtually yours, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 813, September 21 - 27, 2006.

The new issue of KMT is out now. A summary of its contents appears below.

• Unravelling the Mysteries of KV63
  by Earl Ertman, Roxanne Wilson & Otto Schaden. Challenging clearance of the newest tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
• Lady in the Large Earrings
  by Dennis Forbes. Nefertiti's rival, Royal Wife Kiya.
• Bubonic Plague in the Reign of Amenhotep III
  by Arielle Kozloff. Evidence of less than an idyllic time.
• Traces of Egypt at Hadrian's Villa
  by Lucy Gordan-Rastelli. A new exhibition at Tivoli in Italy.
• Berlin's Ägyptisches Museum Und Papyrussammlung
  by Aidan Dodson & Diane Hilton. The past, present & future of Germany's premier Egyptian collection.
• Ibsen & Egypt
  Norway's greatest playwright & poet travels in the Nile in 1869 by Donald P. Ryan & Claudia Berguson.

KMT, KMT Communications Inc., Sebastopol, California, USA, Volume 17, Number 3, Fall 2006.

Subscribe to KMT Magazine via Amazon.com.

Egyptologist Bob Brier, who packed two theatres at the University of Central Oklahoma with two speeches Monday, is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including “ .” He hosts The Learning Channel’s television series “Pyramids, Mummies and Tombs,” and his research has been featured extensively on several news channels and newspapers.

And all of this began because of a basketball injury.

“It was an accident, literally,” Brier said about the beginning of his interest in Egyptology. Brier, who played basketball at school, injured both his knees during a basketball tournament, which required operations on both his legs. While he was in leg casts, one of his friends brought him a book about Egyptian hieroglyphs. Despite already having finished his schooling and starting a career, he found himself fascinated.

“For eight hours a day, I studied hieroglyphs,” he said. After learning them, Brier was asked to teach classes about hieroglyphs, which prompted him to finally visit Egypt. From that point on, Brier found a new career that he has been in for more than 30 years.

“I just fell in love with the place,” he said.

Brier’s first speech of the day, about a modern mummification he did to learn more about the ancient practice...

Brier’s evening speech, about his theory that King Tutankhamen was murdered...

Solving 3,000-year-old mysteries, Justin Martino, The Edmond Sun, Oklahoma, USA, September 18, 2006.

On Friday [September 06, 2006], Egyptologist Julie Scott will present “Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Ancient Mystery Schools,” as part of the Spirit of the Valley Festival. A 6,000-year-old self-help guide, the talk illuminates ancient ways — taught by mystery schools — to achieving a better grasp of oneself.

Ancient mystery schools were centres of study and mystic initiation that explored the universe, nature and humanity. In the ancient Western world, the schools educated students in natural laws and principles. The goal was to teach students a better sense of inner harmony. The schools also encouraged introspection of self and a larger connection with the great mystery of the universe.

As the director of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, California, since 1995, Close will use resources from the museum’s archives as well as current research to explore the beliefs and practices of ancient mystery schools — schools like Orpheus, ancient Eleusis, Delphi, Pythagoras, Mithras and Egypt, including Akhenaton, Osiris and Isis...

Ancient ways to a better being, Telluride Daily Planet, Colorado, USA, September 19, 2006.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif approved Tuesday 19/09/2006 holding two exhibitions in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles, the United States, to display Coptic artefacts of Saint Catherine Monastery.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the first exhibition, which will be held in Los Angeles under the title "Icons from Sinai...Sacred Pictures from the Holy Land," will run from October 1 to March 4, 2007.

He said the second fair, which will be held in Washington, D.C., under the same title, will run from November 1 to April 4, 2007...

Saint Catherine Coptic artefacts to be displayed in US, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 20, 2006.

An Egyptian archaeological expedition has discovered Greek-language engravings in Alexandria, Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni announced on Tuesday.

The engravings, which were discovered close to the Amoud al-Sawari monument, are said to date back to the times of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (ruled 161-180 AD.)

The secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said the engravings are six lines long and were found etched on an artefact measuring 50 centimetres long and 36 centimetres wide, which may perhaps be part of an ancient altar...

Greek language engravings discovered in Alexandria, dpa via Hellenic News of America, USA, September 19, 2006.

The Flint Institute of Arts reopens Sept. 30 [2006] with a new 10,000 square-foot wing, an Egyptian exhibit and a massive fresco covering one long wall.

Talk about a big bang!

Most Egyptian exhibits are designed to draw crowds, and this one is no exception. "Excavating Egypt: Great Discoveries From the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London" tells the story of archaeologist William Matthew Petrie and his exploration of ancient Egypt...

Egypt exhibit highlights coming reopening of FIA, Carol Azizian, The Flint Journal, Michigan, USA, September 15, 2006.

The Portland Art Museum is selling general admission tickets for its next blockbuster exhibit ['The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt'] an unprecedented look into ancient Egypt.

The show evokes the ornately conceived afterworld of ancient Egyptians through 107 objects, including sculpture, jewelry, sarcophagi and other masterpieces of funerary art.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is a full-size replica of the tomb of Thutmose III, the ruler of Egypt in the 15th century BCE...

Tickets are on sale for massive exhibit from Egypt, Ron Cowan, Salem Statesman Journal, Oregon, USA, September 19, 2006.

cf. Volunteers needed for exhibition at Art Museum, The Hillsboro Argus, Oregon, USA, September 12, 2006.

According to [Walter] Bower, the Scottish people were not an amalgam of Picts, Scots and other European peoples, but were in fact Egyptians, who could trace their ancestry directly back to a pharaoh's daughter and her husband, a Greek king.

The queen's name was Scota — from where comes the name Scotland. The Greek king was Gaythelos — hence Gaelic, and their son was known as Hiber — which gives us Hibernia.

According to tradition, this royal family was expelled from Egypt during a time of great uprising. They sailed west, settling initially in Spain before travelling to Ireland and then on to the west coast of Scotland. This same race of people eventually battled and triumphed over the Picts to become the Scots — the people who united this country.

But now a new book, , by Ralph Ellis, claims to prove that this origin myth was no made-up story but the actual recording of an Egyptian exodus that did indeed conclude in Scotland...

The name Ralph Ellis should set the alarm bells ringing.

The pharaoh's daughter who was the mother of all Scots, Diane MacLean, The Scotsman, Scotland, UK, September 14, 2006.

Having recently regained a number of its own disputed antiquities, Greece now hosts a historical exhibit focusing on centuries of archaeological loot, from the creation of early collections at European museums to the pillage of Baghdad in 2003...

The exhibit also seeks to demonstrate the disruptive effects of art looting on archaeologists' understanding of ancient civilisations.

"An isolated ancient object may have commercial and aesthetic value... but what is important is the context of its discovery: where it was found, at what depth, next to which other object," said Averov.

"For example, out of around 1,600 statues of the Cycladic period (3200-2000 BC), only 143 were legally excavated," he added. "The rest were removed under unclear circumstances, and as a result we know very little of this civilisation..."

Greece hosts multimedia exhibit on looted antiquities, TODAYonline, September 15, 2006.

The output of 45 years of Polish archaeologists’ work in Sudan will be presented during an exhibition — “In the sun and desert” at the National Museum in Warsaw.

Magdalena Rościszewska from the Museum’s Promotions Department informs that artefacts borrowed from the National Museum in Khartoum will also be exhibited. Artefacts, which have not been presented or conserved in the National Museum laboratories will also be shown to the public.

Pottery and architectural decorations, epitaphs with Coptic and Greek inscriptions as well as small household utensils will be presented. The exhibition will include photos taken by Polish archaeologists in Sudan, printed on boards. The photos include the churches and Holy Trinity Monastery in Old Dongola as well as Banganarti with the centre of cult of archangel Raphael, numerously visited by pilgrims, which was recently discovered by Polish archaeologists.

The remaining photos presented at the exhibition show the work of Poznań Archaeological Museum’s mission, which has been running excavations at the Neolithic site in Kadero since 1972, as well as ones from the State Archaeological Museum in Gdansk...

“In the Sun and Desert” — National Museum, Science & Scholarship in Poland, Poland, September 06, 2006.

Those with a passion for the ancient Egyptian civilization can now indulge their craving by logging on to the richness of antiquity pieces of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy, that is truly a rarity, if they click on www.eternalegypt.org, the deputy director of the Cairo-based Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) has said.

CULTNAT, an affiliate of Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and Egyptian Museum in Turin signed Thursday a cooperation agreement to that effect, Eglal Bahgat said in statements.

Under the agreement, Egypt will be posting a collection of antiquities, on display at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, "Eternal Egypt" website, Bahgat said...

Rare Egyptian antiquities now on-line, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 15, 2006.

Circus showman P.T. Barnum wasn't fooling. The Egyptian mummy in his museum is for real. A pair of imaging experts who specialize in mummies have confirmed that the mummy — Pa-Ib — was a real person.

Barnum's second wife had donated the mummy to the museum in 1892. The mummy is supposedly that of an Egyptian priest who lived more than 2,500 years ago.

The experts from Quinnipiac University, Jerry Conlogue and Ron Beckett, confirmed that the mummy was that of someone 18 years or older. But its gender and whether it truly is the Egyptian priest is still a mystery.

"It's never been scientifically researched, how old was he when he died, is it male or female? We're ecstatic to be here," Beckett said.

Beckett and Conlogue, who also host National Geographic's "Mummy Road Show," have investigated more than 500 mummies around the world. The experts hope to answer many of the lingering questions of Pa-Ib during their one-month research...

P.T. Barnum was right about his mummy, AP via MSNBC, USA, September 15, 2006.

Tralliance Corporation, the .travel Registry, working with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) today announced the establishment of the Africa Virtual Heritage Management Project (VHMP) before an audience of travel industry leadership at the Tourism Africa 2006 Conference. The inaugural conference is taking place under the patronage of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and its president Jean-Claude Baumgarten, which also was the first travel trade association to support the global .travel initiative.

The progressive initiative will ensure that the registration of each country's place names, including cities, towns, heritage and sacred sites, national parks and reserves for all African nations, are rightfully secured within the growing .travel Internet space. In line with the UNWTO's ongoing commitment to develop tourism in Africa, the project will ensure that each African country will be able to market its tourism assets through the .travel brand equally with the rest of the world, now and in the future.

The project is designed to ensure that once registered through the VHMP, approximately 4,000 primary Africa place names, from all 55 African nations, will be held in trust by the UNWTO for an initial period of up to five years. At any time, each African nation will be able to request the transfer of respective place names to the rightful authorities within their country in accordance with .travel policies.

The VHMP comes as the .travel Place Name Priority Right deadline is drawing near. The December 31, 2006 deadline is looming large for all nations in the world. After this time, all place names left unclaimed by any country will be open to commercial travel entities. Any businesses that may share a place name will have the legal right to register the name...

Tralliance and UNWTO Unveil Africa Virtual Heritage Management Project, Yahoo! Finance, USA, September 11, 2006.

cf. Previously on this blog: Egyptian Tourist Authority Launches New Website.

For the last two weeks, Prator and his classmates have been studying ancient Egypt, specifically the practice of mummification, using Cornish hens purchased from a grocery store.

Students preserved the hens using a mixture of salt and cinnamon meant to replicate natron, the naturally occurring mineral the Egyptians used to dry the bodies that is unique to Egypt. The salt and cinnamon were changed every other day.

Social studies teacher Jo Ann Hopper bought gizzards, which students also had to preserve. Once dried, those were wrapped in white cloth strips and placed in hand-painted canopic jars, just like it was done to the organs of royalty centuries ago...

Students get all wrapped up in how Egypt made mummies, Georgann Yara, The Arizona Republic, Arizona, USA, September 13, 2006.

Walking down the pristine hallways of the Museum of Fine Arts, most visitors focus on the aesthetics of legendary works of art, thinking little about the logistics and processes that bring pieces from faraway countries to Boston. But some of those artefacts may have had a much seedier beginning, looted under the cover of darkness from sites across the ocean, according to Boston University professor archaeologist Ricardo Elia.

Italian authorities said last October they had evidence proving the MFA had received looted works of art, according to a July 28 The Boston Globe article. In July, the MFA announced it would return an unspecified number of artefacts to the Italian government. MFA officials declined to comment for this article.

Elia said the vague wording of the MFA's acquisitions and provenance policy allows the museum to acquire undocumented antiquities that are possibly looted, as long as the museum's directors think the piece is significant enough.

"It's a huge problem across the board," he said. "This [has been] a major problem with antiquities collections by museums ... for 50 years."

Elia said antiquities-rich countries, including Egypt, Italy and Greece, have strict laws prohibiting the removal of antiquities from the country without government permission.

However, he said, "tons and tons" of material continues to come from these countries each year...

Museums then purchase or receive these "looted" objects, considered to be undocumented because they do not come with a long history of ownership or origination. Elia said about 85 to 90 percent of materials found in Sotheby's auctions or in museum catalogs is undocumented. He said the MFA's current acquisitions policy allows its directors to receive these undocumented artefacts without investigating the possibility that the works were looted...

Prof. demands MFA return 'looted' artefacts, Jenny Paul, The Daily Free Press, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, September 12, 2006.

Early this week the conflict between businessmen Adel Iskandar, owner of a number of bazaars in Old Cairo, the priests of Old Cairo's churches and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) reached a deadlock.

Bishop Selwanss, general bishop of the Old Cairo, Manial and Fum Al-Khalig churches, has appealed to President Hosni Mubarak asking his direct intervention to prevent any harm to the Coptic churches at the Mugamaa Al-Adian (religious compound) in Old Cairo by a so-called violation of the backyard of St George's (Mar Girguis) Church by a "powerful" Coptic businessman named Adel Iskandar who is planning to build a tourist complex including a bazaar, a restaurant and a pub.

In an appeal published in Al-Masry Al-Yom newspaper, Bishop Selwanss accused Iskandar of insulting, beating and even trying to kill the priests who opposed his will, as well as violating patriarchal land and carrying out massive construction work on the holy archaeological site in the face of Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) inspectors. He says the building activities have forced the discontinuance of church rituals.

Gabriel Girguis, priest and head of St Sergius's church council, asks why the minister of culture and the SCA's secretary- general do not stop the aggression against the Coptic shrine? "Why don't they apply the antiquities law which stipulates the removal and demolition of any encroachment on archaeological sites?" he asks...

Squabbles in Old Cairo, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 812, September 14 - 20, 2006.

Like other countries of the Middle East, Lebanon has a heritage almost as old as the earliest evidence of mankind. Its geographic position as a crossroads linking the Mediterranean Basin with the great Asian hinterland has conferred on it a cosmopolitan character and a multicultural legacy.

At different periods of its history Lebanon has come under the domination of foreign rulers, including Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Ottomans and French. Moreover, its mountainous terrain has provided it with a certain protective isolation, enabling it to survive with an identity all of its own.

Lebanon first appeared in recorded history in about 3000 BC as a group of coastal cities and a heavily forested hinterland. It was inhabited by the Canaanites, a Semitic people whom the Greeks called "Phoenicians" because of the purple dye they sold. These early inhabitants referred to themselves as "men of Sidon", referring to their city of origin, and called their country "Lebanon".

Because of the nature of the country and its location the Phoenicians turned to the sea, where they engaged in trade and navigation.

Each of the coastal cities was an independent kingdom noted for the special activities of its inhabitants. Tyre and Sidon were important maritime and trade centres; Gubla (later known as Byblos and now as Jubayl) and Berytus (Beirut) were trade and religious centres. Gubla was the first Phoenician city to trade actively with Egypt and the Pharaohs of the Old Kingdom (2686- 2181 BC), exporting cedar, olive oil and wine, while importing gold and other products from the Nile Valley...

Ancient Phoenicia under threat, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 812, September 14 - 20, 2006.

You must have passed it driving down Cairo's Autostrade. Not more than a kilometre or two from the Citadel in the direction of Maadi, it is on your left, a mosque in ruins that still hangs by a thread on the steep cliffs of Moqattam Hills. Mohamed El-Hebeishy tries to decipher the mysterious Al-Khalawati Mosque.

His name is Sheikh Al-Salih Al-Abid Shahin Al-Khalawati, a pious man who was born in Tabriz (present- day Iran). At an early stage of his life he joined the army of Sultan Qaitbey. Military life did not entice Al-Khalawati and so he requested that he be granted his release from the army for a more spiritual life, devoting himself to religion. He returned to his hometown Tabriz joining Sidi Omar Rawshani, who initiated him into the Khalawatiya order. Later, Shahin went again to Cairo joining another great scholar, Mohamed Al-Demerdashi. After Al-Demerdashi's death, Shahin Al-Khalawati took refuge in the hills of Moqattam, building himself a place of worship that later contained his grave as well. It is said that he stayed in the hills for 30 years; not once did he descend to Cairo.

Built in 1533 AD, Al-Khalawati Mosque is nicknamed the Castle of Mamelukes...

SNAP SHOTS, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 811, September 07 - 13, 2006.

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology will lend significant portions of its collection for an exhibition in China, the museum said Thursday.

Penn Museum officials lent 48 "important and representative objects" of its Near East collection to the Beijing World Art Museum for its "The Great Civilizations" exhibition, which opens Sept. 28 [2006].

The exhibition is "dedicated to disseminating knowledge of world arts to the broad Chinese public," the Penn Museum said.

The Penn Museum regularly lends parts of its collection, but this is the first time it has lent items to be shown in mainland China.

Other lending institutions include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, California Work was also gathered from India, Greece, Rome and Egypt.

Penn Museum lending pieces for exhibit in Beijing, Philadelphia Business Journals, Pennsylvania, USA, September 14, 2006.

The Kimbell Art Museum presents Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, on view through December 31, 2006. Can a queen be a king? In ancient Egypt she could, as will be seen in the landmark exhibition Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. This major and spectacular exhibition explores the 20-year reign of Hatshepsut (c. 1479-1458 B.C.), the first great female ruler known to history...

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh examines the phenomenon of Hatshepsut as a female pharaoh and the effects of her reign on Egyptian history, culture, and the astonishingly creative artistic output of the time. The exhibition traces the history of her reign, including the main characters of her family and inner circle, through the court and funerary art that has survived. Particular attention is given to statuary of the royal steward Senenmut, the most powerful man in Egypt, who oversaw Hatshepsut's estates when she was queen, was tutor to her daughter Neferure, and served as the overseer of the estates of Amun, then the chief god in the Egyptian pantheon. Of all the members of Hatshepsut's court, Senenmut was the most powerful, the best known, and most often represented. Among the many sculpted images of him, one of the most exquisite and beautifully preserved is in the Kimbell's own collection.

The exhibition features a number of monumental statues of Hatshepsut herself, including images of her as a female ruler, as a masculine king, and as a sphinx. They include one of only two statues of Hatshepsut from Deir el-Bahri (the site of her mortuary temple), in which her dress style and adornment depict her as female royalty. Numerous objects that belonged to courtiers and other elites during the rule of Hatshepsut are also presented, including elegant stone vessels, lavish gold jewellery, and furniture.

A fully illustrated exhibition catalogue, published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale University Press, is available...

, Catharine H. Roehrig, Renee Dreyfus, Cathleen A. Keller, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, 2005, pp. 356.

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh Opens at Kimbell, Art Daily, Mexico, September 10, 2006.

Details of the life and death of an ancient Egyptian woman began to emerge yesterday after her mummified body was scanned at a Tyneside hospital.

Experts from the Hancock Museum in the city are examining the first of 800 images of the 3,000-year-old mummy Bakt Hor Nekht.

The mummy was bought in Egypt in 1820 by Thomas Coates from Haydon Bridge, in Northumberland, who gave her to the Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle.

The mummy, inside her linen and plaster inner coffin, or cartonnage, was given a Computerised Tomography (CT) scan at Newcastle General Hospital.

It revealed that she has a full set of teeth, including her wisdom teeth.

Gill Scott, Egyptologist at the Hancock Museum, said that this meant she was probably aged between 21 and mid to late-30s when she died...

That's a nice set of teeth, mummy, Tony Henderson, The Newcastle Journal, UK, September 13, 2006.

Modern medicine reveals secrets of a middle-class mummy

The mummified remains of Bakt Hor Nekht, encased in a linen and plaster inner coffin, were bought at a local market and brought to Britain in 1820. Now a full Computerised Tomography (CT) scan at Newcastle General Hospital is yielding a wealth of information.

Bakt Hor Nekht was 5ft tall and had a full set of teeth, including wisdom teeth, and no signs of arthritis or bone disease, which suggests she was between 21 and 35 when she died. A substance found on her teeth may have been painted on as a cosmetic exercise after her face was damaged during embalming...

Modern medicine reveals secrets of a middle-class mummy, Paul Stokes, The Telegraph, UK, September 14, 2006.

The new issue of Minerva magazine is available now. It contains an article that may be of interest to Egyptophiles as follows.

• The Fitzwilliam Egyptian Galleries, Cambridge

Minerva Magazine, London, UK, Volume 17, Number 5, September / October 2006.

Subscribe to Minerva Magazine via Amazon.com.

An Egyptologist who investigated two hills in central Bosnia, believed by some to be ancient pyramids, on Wednesday recommended that archaeological digs be carried out there.

After investigating the two hills for a week, Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Ali, a professor of Egyptology in Cairo, said nobody should be jumping to conclusions but having in mind everything he had seen in Visoko, his recommendations would be that "it is worth digging here."

"You have to be patient. This might take decades," he said...

The theory has been disputed by a number of local and international experts, who claim that at no time in Bosnia's history did the region have a civilization able to build monumental structures...

Egyptologist backs Bosnian excavation, Aida Cerkez-Robinson, AP via MSNBC, USA, September 13, 2006.

cf. Archaeologist backs dig at Bosnia hills, Aida Cerkez-Robinson, AP via The Houston Chronicle, Texas, USA, September 13, 2006.

cf. Archaeologist Backs Dig at Bosnia Hills, Aida Cerkez-Robinson, AP via The los Angeles Times, California, USA, September 13, 2006.

Experts examining new images of one of the Hancock Museum’s oldest residents, the mummy Bakt Hor Nekht, have started to reveal some of their findings.

The 3000 year old mummy, dating from 1070 – 712 BC, was examined during a recent Computerised Tomography (CT) scan at Newcastle General Hospital on Thursday August 31 [2006].

X-rays were beamed through the mummy at regular intervals while moving 360 degrees to create a remarkably precise three-dimensional image...

Hancock Museum Mummy Begins to Reveal its X-Ray Secrets, 24-Hour Museum, UK, September 12, 2006.

An undisturbed royal tomb has been detected deeply buried in the Valley of the Kings, a British Egyptologist claims. The find, using remote-sensing equipment, lies only a few yards from the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922, and is likely to date to the same early New Kingdom period between 1550BC and 1300 BC, and perhaps even to Tutankhamun’s own 18th dynasty.

“From its location this tomb could prove to be a find of the greatest possible significance,” said Nicholas Reeves, director of the Amarna Royal Tombs Project. “Situated in a part of the Valley which was out of bounds to earlier excavators, moreover, the new find is almost certain to be undisturbed.”

Dr Reeves believes that the site, neighbouring tombs KV62, that of Tutankhamun, and KV63, the most recent discovery, is likely to represent another burial of the period after the reign of the “heretic” pharaoh Akhenaten. It may even be of those who once lived in his abandoned capital of Akhetaten at Tell el-Amarna...

From the void: a new tomb in Valley of the Kings?, Norman Hammond, The Times, UK, September 11, 2006.

No need to jump a jet to London to tour the British Museum's Egyptian art exhibit, which has the largest collection outside of Cairo, Egypt.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is the first stop of a five-city tour of an exhibit from The British Museum titled "Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art From The British Museum." The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is on the tour April 15 - July 8 [2007].

Hardy George, chief curator for the museum, said the items are representative of the rule of the pharaohs, from around 2686 B.C. to the fourth century A.D...

Egyptian art tour will stop in Raleigh, Judi Boland, AP via The Charlotte Observer, North Carolina, USA, September 10, 2006.

The British Museum’s Egyptian art exhibit, the largest collection outside Cairo, will make five stops in the United States.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is the first stop for the 85-piece "Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art From the British Museum." The exhibit, which opened yesterday, runs through Nov. 26 [2006].

Hardy George, chief curator for the museum, said the items are representative of the rule of the pharaohs, from about 2686 B.C. to the fourth century...

Egyptian artefacts to be seen in five U.S. cities, Judi Boland, AP via The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, USA, September 08, 2006.

An extraordinary project between the Egyptian government and IBM Corp has resulted in the creation of Eternal Egypt, an achievement that is providing worldwide access to more than 7,000 years of Egyptian history.

And now this initiative has made its way to our shores through the collaboration of IBM Malaysia and the National Science Centre.

For the first time ever, visitors can enter a virtual reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s tomb and see how it looks like on the day Howard Carter discovered it in 1922, or view the Lighthouse of Alexandria before it was destroyed in the 14th century.

Viewers can also examine the face of the Sphinx just as how it was 2,000 years ago.

The Eternal Egypt kiosk located at the National Science Centre gallery lets you explore Ancient Egypt by extending the three-dimensional (3-D) environments and rich data into a fully immersive, real-time experience...

Take a guided tour of Eternal Egypt, The New Straits Times, Malaysia, September 11, 2006.

Richard H Wilkinson's lifts the layers of myth and ritual to present the first fully illustrated and systematic survey of the deities of Ancient Egypt, their evolution, different manifestations, worship, rituals and festivals. It is a book which, moreover, outlines the lasting legacy of Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs.

Many books have been written on the deities of Ancient Egypt, but none quite like this. The Complete Gods and Goddesses provides a comprehensive catalogue of Egyptian deities, their worship from early Pharaonic times to the Roman period, and the book is enhanced with beautiful and appropriate photographs as well as newly-commissioned drawings of tomb paintings, statues and temple reliefs.

It is part of the "Complete" series and, in my opinion, the most needed, because while , , , , provide more of the same on each subject, Gods and Goddesses does more. Richard Wilkinson, professor and director of the University of Arizona Egyptian Expedition, has written about "the lives and hoped-for afterlives of the Egyptians" in a manner that is both informative and entertaining...

A lasting legacy, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 811, September 07 - 13, 2006.

Tour Egypt (touregypt.net), one of the worlds leading authorities on travel to Egypt, will be conducting a comprehensive survey of Egypt over a several month period, beginning September 21st, 2006.

We will be updating our files on almost all Egyptian, archaeology sites as well as documenting cities, countryside and other physical locations. I will also be documenting the culture and people of Egypt.

However, updating the physical features and monuments of Egypt is only one reason for our visit. We will also be documenting the culture, but perhaps more importantly, we will also be assessing the safety of Western, and in particular, American tourists and travellers to Egypt. We actually are well informed of tourist safety in the main touristic areas of Egypt, as our staff in Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor and elsewhere keep us informed on a daily basis. However, we will also be travelling to more remote locations, some frequented by a few tourists, while others see virtually no foreign presence...

A Survey of Egypt for Publications, Jimmy Dunn, PRWeb, USA, September 08, 2006.

Severe climate change was the primary driver in the development of civilisation, according to new research by the University of East Anglia.

The early civilisations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and northern South America were founded between 6000 and 4000 years ago when global climate changes, driven by natural fluctuations in the Earth's orbit, caused a weakening of monsoon systems resulting in increasingly arid conditions. These first large urban, state-level societies emerged because diminishing resources forced previously transient people into close proximity in areas where water, pasture and productive land was still available.

In a presentation to the BA Festival of Science on September 7 [2006], Dr. Nick Brooks will challenge existing views of how and why civilisation arose. He will argue that the earliest civilisations developed largely as a by-product of adaptation to climate change and were the products of hostile environments...

Climate change rocked cradles of civilization, Simon Dunford, University of East Anglia, UK, via EurekAlert, September 07, 2006.

cf. Hot, dry spell may have led to dawn of civilisation, Ian Johnston, The Scotsman, UK, September 08, 2006.

cf. Climate change forged first civilizations: scientist, Reuters via Yahoo! News, USA, September 07, 2006.

cf. Nick Brooks, University of East Anglia, UK.

Ask most 19-year-old girls what they did during their summer vacations, and it’s unlikely they’ll relate experiences of boot camp, riding a camel, exploring a glacier cave and a flight out of Paris the day after a thwarted terrorist plot, all in the span of eight weeks. Holly Parker can say she did all of those things and has the pictures to prove it.

Holly, the daughter of Hal and Kathy Parker of Auburn, volunteered for a missions trip through Teen Missions International, which took her from its base of operations in Merritt Island, Florida, to Assiut, Egypt, on to Lucerne, Switzerland via Paris, France and back home, again via Paris.

“I decided about three years ago to go on a missions trip after hearing about a trip our youth leader, Jason Root took,” Holly recalls. “I’m interested in travelling, seeing different things and how other people live. I wanted to help people, and to work for God...”

Holly’s special trip to Egypt, Wendy Bates, The New York Citizen, New York, USA, September 11, 2006.

A collection of priceless artefacts and rare antiquities at Lake Tahoe Community College with pieces that span from 100 to 100,000 years old, is entering its 20th year and is still going strong.

The Perry Foundation Collections and Loans will celebrate its two-decade anniversary with an open house from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday and 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday in room B-103 at LTCC.

The foundation was started by John Perry, faculty member emeritus at the college. Each year he shows the recent acquisitions that fit themes appropriate for the history, humanities and archaeology classes that he teaches at the college. The theme for the 2006 exhibit is "The Development of Ancient Human Skills" and consists of 111 authentic ancient artefacts and artistic items, nearly half of which have changed since last fall's exhibit...

Ancient wonders: Open house at college features priceless artefacts and rare antiquities, Nancy Oliver Hayden, Tahoe Daily Tribune, California, September 08, 2006.

Is King Tut art or science? Is he still museum magic? Philadelphia will find out Feb. 3 [2007], when a travelling exhibition of more than 130 precious objects from Egyptian royal tombs stops at the Franklin Institute for an eight-month run.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs combines material from the young pharaoh's burial chamber and the tombs of other royal personages to tell the story of Tut and his family and the 18th dynasty. Like the landmark Tut show of 30 years ago, this one, a blend of art and science, promises to be dazzling.

A related exhibition, "Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun," will open at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on Nov. 12 [2006]. Tutankhamun grew up in Amarna, and most of the more than 100 ancient artefacts to be displayed date to his time.

If you're immune to Tut mania, the region's art museums have many other attractive options on tap...

That golden boy, King Tut, Edward J. Sozanski, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, USA, September 10, 2006.

Jean Revez studies old things, but that doesn't make him wedded to old ways.

The professor of Egyptian history at the University of Montreal in Canada is developing one of several emerging techniques for electronically recording and interpreting ancient stone inscriptions.

Today most archaeologists record writing and other architectural details using pencils, pens, and paper, "tools that are really quite ancient," Revez said.

In his vision of the future, epigraphists — archaeologists who study inscriptions — will rely instead on digital cameras, specialized computer software, and their dexterity with a mouse...

Egyptian Writing "Scanned" Using High-Tech Methods, Ben Harder, National Geographic News, District of Columbia, USA, September 08, 2006.

cf. PDF: Assessing the historical value of investigating ancient monuments by means of an intelligent digital model: The case of the temple of Karnak in Egypt., J. Revez, T. Tidafi, G. De Paoli, C. Parisel, Université de Montréal, Quebec, Canada, The Fifth International Conference on Computer Graphics and Artificial Intelligence, Limoges, France, May 14 - 15, 2002.

cf. Previously on this blog: Egyptian inscriptions saved by software.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art is the first stop of a five-city tour of an 85-piece exhibit from The British Museum titled "Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art From The British Museum."

Hardy George, chief curator for the museum, said the items are representative of the rule of the pharaohs, from around 2686 B.C. to the fourth century A.D.

"The timeliness of the art will be felt by those that visit this exhibit," George said. "There is something of grandeur and the feeling of permanence in these items..."

Oklahoma City shows Egyptian exhibit, Judi Boland, AP via The Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, September 06, 2006.

The main campus of the American University in Cairo (AUC) has been a landmark in Tahrir Square for more than 80 years, its exquisite Fatimid-style architecture dominating the landscape of the square and the attention of passers-by. However, as the new AUC building emerges in New Cairo, some 40 kilometres east of the university's present location, rumours about the future of the historic building are rife. Word is circulating that a wealthy Egyptian businessman has taken an interest in the property, and even that the campus will become the new premises of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo.

AUC president David D Arnold, annoyed by the stories that have been spreading all over Egypt and have even appeared in the press, has denied all the tittle-tattle. He has announced that, as part of the university's transition to a new campus, AUC's Board of Trustees has voted to pursue the sale of the university's Greek Campus and the Rare Books and Special Collections Library in downtown Tahrir, as well as the hostel in Zamalek. "The university is not selling the buildings on the main campus, including the Ewart Memorial Hall and the new Falaki building," Arnold said.

Early this week the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) declared the main building an Islamic monument listed on Egypt's Antiquities List. The action was described by some archaeologists and intellectuals as "brilliant", since it will preserve the edifice's distinguished architecture and its genuine decorative elements should any unpredicted event take place in the future.

For his part SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass told Al-Ahram Weekly that the AUC's main campus architecture had been finely executed in the Fatimid style...

Tahrir's gem protected, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 811, September 07 - 13, 2006...

Excavations continue in the Valley of the Kings inside tomb KV63, which has now been identified as a storage place for embalming materials. The little curse of this tomb continues. In a previous article, I told the story of this remarkable discovery and the fight between the two Egyptologists Otto Schaden and Lorelei Corcoran, who both wanted to be director of the excavation. Since that article was published many things have happened. Corcoran came back to Egypt from Memphis and wanted to take photographs of the excavation. Schaden, as the official director according to the concession, prevented her from doing so. Mansour Boraik, director of Luxor antiquities, told me that Corcoran had been seen sobbing in the valley.

I do not know what we can do to resolve this problem but I believe we must encourage them both to finish their work, because the wood is deteriorating and they still have two coffins (one for an adult and one for a child) that have not been opened. Schaden wanted to leave the excavation for 10 days while he presented a talk at the American Research Centre in New Jersey, and planned to close the excavation because he would not be there. I thought this might be dangerous because the work should have continued and conservation needed to be done. The Discovery Channel was also filming a documentary, and they cannot just stop production for 10 days. This film is not exclusive. In fact, it will be aired all over the world and shown free on Egyptian TV.

KV63 requires more work. No royal names have been found there, but one of the most interesting seals shows a crocodile and a lion with a captive man standing between them. One of the jars is believed to have contained moringa oil (related to horseradish). Hieratic inscriptions were also found on one of the pottery shards that has been restored by a member of the Egyptian team...

Dig Days: Secrets from the embalming storeroom, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 811, September 07 - 13, 2006...

The 16th-century fort at Quseir on the Red Sea coast, Egypt's gateway to the East for thousands of years, has been conserved and restored and an exhibition installed for visitors. The wall paintings in the monasteries of St Paul and St Antony on the Red Sea coast have been revealed in the natural pigments in which they were originally painted. The fragmented sarcophagus of Ramses VI has been reconstructed and is exhibited inside the tomb for which it was designed. The villa of a Roman aristocrat in Alexandria has been restored and its fire-blackened and disintegrated mosaics restored. Bab Al-Zuweila, one of Cairo's oldest and most magnificent structures, has been developed into a tourist-friendly mediaeval monument. Finally, the sabil-kuttab of Nafisa Al-Bayda, an architectural gem, has undergone structural repairs and conservation of the building's various architectural and artistic elements.

What do all these have in common? They are among the many projects carried out in recent years by the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), a non-profit institution dedicated to fostering the history, culture and civilisation of Egypt through a variety of programmes and projects, and the Egyptian Antiquities Project (EAP), a programme funded by USAID in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) for the restoration and preservation of antiquities...

Priority on site management, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 811, September 07 - 13, 2006...

It is claimed that the monuments have been uncovered in the east of the country and that they predate the pyramids in Egypt.

But the claim that there is evidence of pyramids is being disputed. The prestigious Academy of Sciences has sent its own expert to the dig.

It believes that this could be the Ukrainian version of Stonehenge...

It is claimed that pyramids are buried underground in eastern Ukraine. A team digging at a site near to the city of Luhansk has unearthed a huge religious complex...

'Pyramids' discovered in Ukraine, Helen Fawkes, BBC News, UK, September 07, 2006. With video here Pyramids found in Ukraine.

cf. Bronze Age pyramid found in Ukraine, Tom Parfitt, The Guardian, UK, September 08, 2006.

cf. Ancient pyramids found in Ukraine, Translated by Leila Wilmers, Pravda, Russia, August 11, 2006.

And it gets worse: “The majority of scientists consider that underground pyramids of Sevastopol confirm the guess of American scientists about that 65 million years ago an ancient civilization died out because of fall of giant meteorite”. So they dinosaurs built them huh?

cf. Scientists to dig mysterious pyramids in Sevastopol, ForUm, Ukraine, July 17, 2006.

cf. Pyramids in the Crimea, Gokh Vitaly Anatol'evich, Ukraine.

Thanks to the Hall of Maat for most of these links.

Egyptian tourism is expected to grow further this year despite current situations in the Middle East.

"Arrivals as of July 2006 already reached 5.14 million. By the end of August 2006, we anticipate 6 million tourists — a 5 percent increase compared to the same period last year," said Egyptian Tourism Minister Zoheir Garannah, at the 7th edition of the Mediterranean Travel Fair, running September 5 to 7. He stressed solidarity among destinations is key for surviving the recent crisis in the region.

Egyptian hotel rooms inventory has reached a new record high of 175,000 with 120,000 more under construction. Minister Garannah took pride in the rate the hospitality industry is expanding facilities. "In the past years, we added only 60,000 rooms per year. Today, we double the rate of inventory increase," he said.

"We've been working very hard with our marketing campaigns which will be launched soon. The national campaign will urge our people to get a fair share in the industry that sustains the country's economy," the minister said.

Tourism is one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy, with about 8.6 million visitors arriving yearly...

Egypt tourism grows despite current geopolitical climate, Hazel Heyer, TravelVideo.TV, Ontario, Canada, September 06, 2006.

Lost Cities Of The Ancients. The main mistake Pharaoh Rameses the Great made was erecting his capital complete with hundreds of statues to himself in the Nile delta. The course of the river in any delta keeps changing, and today's prosperous capital becomes tomorrow's ghost town. The documentary evidence all pointed to this capital, Piramesse, being built on the westernmost branch of the Nile, but Montaigne, an Egyptologist working in the 1920s, found the architectural remains of the city well east of that point.

The mystery of Piramesse being found in the wrong place was restated so often in Lost Cities Of The Ancients that I felt like I was attending a lecture on architecture for thickos. I went all panto' and shouted out: "They moved it!" If a nation can build pyramids for reasons best known to themselves, they can surely shift cities.

More evidence of how stupid the makers thought we were came when the camera would close in on Montaigne writing in his jotter. I half expected "the pay's crap" or "Help!" or "This is going to be such a turkey" to appear. But all we got was "palace" or "garrison" or other archaeology words. It's like saying Tony Blair spends his days writing "Iraq" in his jotter. And Gordon Brown writing "PM".

It was several decades before [Manfred] Bietak came on the scene and reopened discussion. He studied the various courses of the Nile to find which was the westernmost, dating them by the age of the pottery found along the banks and, doing an enormous sub-surface survey of the most likely site, he revealed the detailed foundations of Piramesse. Twenty minutes more of Bietak working out the location of the original site and 20 minutes less of a fat actor playing Montaigne as a stubborn dickhead with an Estuary accent would have been nice...

More digging and less doodling, please, The Scotsman, Scotland, UK, September 05, 2006.

UCO’s “Passport UCO” program will focus on Egypt this year, with movie showings, lectures and at least one play that is being translated and performed in English for the first time...

The university chose Egypt this year for various reasons, including current events and a desire to include various continents in the program.

“As a result of the increasing conflict in the Middle East, there is a growing interest in the wide history and culture of countries such as Egypt,” she said.

“Another motivator for focusing on Egypt this year is to tie in with the major exhibition of ancient Egyptian artefacts that will be on display at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art this fall.”

Spencer said the highlight of the program for many people would be two presentations by Bob Brier, an expert on mummies who hosts The Learning Channel’s television program “Pyramid’s, Mummies and Tombs...”

'Passport to Egypt' to highlight mummy expert, Justin Martino, The Edmond Sun, Oklahoma, USA, September 06, 2006.

It is nearly 10 years since 58 tourists were killed by gunmen in front of the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor in Egypt.

Since then, Egypt has worked hard to attract back the tourists and despite suffering a number of other tourist-targeted attacks — including April's explosions in the Red Sea resort of Dahab — it is still luring holidaymakers in their thousands.

According to Anna Paynton, of travel publisher Rough Guides, Egypt's success has been securing our confidence by "honestly defining the problem".

They have tried to put the risk into perspective and let the security measures being put in place be known, she said.

The result?

"People do still travel to Egypt," she said...

Coping with terror threat to tourism, BBC News, UK, September 05, 2006.

Her 3,300 year-old bust has firmly established ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti as one of the most beautiful women who ever existed, but it seems that like every other woman on the planet, even she had to deal with the problem of wrinkles and bags under her eyes, reveals a new investigation on the bust.

Discovered in 1912 at Tel-El-Amarna in what used to be the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, the bust - depicting a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and an enigmatic smile played about red lips, has become the international symbol of beauty.

However, a new examination of the famous bust has revealed visible wrinkles running down her slender neck, and puffy bags circling, leading experts to now believe that Nefertiti was an aging beauty.

Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's Egyptian museum, who is part of the investigation, revealed that signs of aging had been discovered when he considered using a different kind of lighting to display the bust at Berlin's Altes Museum...

Nefertiti was actually a 'fascinating' aging beauty, New Kerala, India, September 06, 2006.

Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh brings together a vast treasure of royal statuary and relief. These monumental pieces seem situated ideally in the Kimbell — as though architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) had anticipated the antiquarian preferences of Timothy Potts, the museum’s director since 1998...

The exhibition covers sculptures representing members of the royal court and a wide variety of ceremonial objects, finely crafted furniture, royal jewellery and other exquisite personal items. The sources include holdings excavated by the Egyptian expeditions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, during the 1920s and ’30s.

Born in the 15th century B.C., Hatshepsut, eldest daughter of Thutmose I and Ahmose, assumed the throne after her husband (her half-brother) had died; her nephew-and-stepson Thutmose had not come of age. After six years as regent, Hatshepsut became, in effect, a king for the remaining 15 years of her rule. She dressed in the traditional garb of the pharaohs...

Hatshepsut: Remember the name — you won’t forget the ruler, Michael H. Price, Forth Worth Business Press, Texas, USA, September 04, 2006.

Museum lovers are like time travellers, transported into another dimension the minute they get their first whiff of museum air — dry and musty, mixed with the smell of old wood. But my trip last month began before I even came within sight of the newly re-opened Coptic Museum.

Leaving behind the taxis lying in wait at the corner by Amr Ibn Al-Aas Mosque, I walked down a narrow street fronted with tourist shops peddling postcards and trinkets. As I progressed, the noise of the vendors faded and I soon found myself alone, walking in long shadows cast by ancient houses of worship glimpsed above the tops of imposing stone walls. Each step forward was a step back in time until I reached the precipice: Babylon Fortress.

Built by the Romans in the second century AD, the walls of the stronghold have now been subsumed by urban build-up and the site now houses six historic churches, a ninth-century synagogue and an active convent. It is in the district aptly known as Masr El-’Adima (Old Cairo) or Coptic Cairo, the traditionally Coptic Christian centre of Cairo...

Travel Back in Time, Nicolè A. Staab, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 09, September 2006.

At the moment, the endeavour closest to Hawass’ heart is a massive mummy-cataloguing project, which will hopefully have its first phase completed by the end of this year. The entire world of archaeology is watching to see how Egypt pulls off this feat — and is waiting to find out if one of the mummies in the Egyptian Museum is actually the famous Queen Hatshepsut.

Hawass: We are going to accomplish a lot before the end of this year, but the most important thing that we are starting is actually going to be called the Egyptian Mummy Project. As you know, non-royal mummies are scattered everywhere. No one has ever tried to make a database or tried to document all of these mummies, and, for the first time, we will do this. This will cover the mummies held in the [Egyptian, Greco-Roman], National, Luxor and Mummification museums as well as in all other sites around Egypt.

There are many sites in Egypt with mummies that no one knows anything about. This project will also take a sample of the mummies and do CT scans on each one. The largest part of the project, which will come later, will be that we will open a museum for all non-royal mummies in Fustat...

The second mummy project we will complete is the study on royal mummies. We will start with two mummies in particular that have never had CT scans done on them. In 1906, Howard Carter found two mummies inside KV60. One was on the ground, and the second one was in a coffin. The coffin had an inscription with the last three letters of the name of the wet nurse to Queen Hatshepsut, and so naturally they believed that this mummy was that of Queen Hatshepsut’s wet nurse...

We are thinking about DNA, but the problem with [ancient] DNA is that there are mistakes about 40 percent of the time. Maybe we will try an experiment with an Egyptian team, an experiment with the mummy of Tuthmosis II and with the mummy of Hatshepsut. If they are related, maybe this will prove it.

We will also do CT scans of famous mummies like “[unknown] man E” that no one knows anything about. We will do CT scanning of the mummies of Tuthmosis III and Ramses II...

The third project on Hawass’ list to launch by the end of the year is another series of tomb excavations at Saqqara. With the worldwide media frenzy unleashed by last year’s discovery of KV63, the first unopened tomb discovered in the Valley of the Kings in over 80 years, you can count on Hawass’ latest unveiling to be an international sensation.

We actually discovered two tombs at Saqqara. The first one was in the shadow of the second pyramid and near the causeway of the third pyramid. At the end of the causeway, we discovered that the Egyptians of Dynasty 4 found that the causeway was broken. They began to repair the north side of it, and they made that restoration with stone rubble. So we asked, “Why did they do that?” Because there was a tomb and they sealed the end of the tomb with the stone rubble..!

But is She Royalty?, David Lee Wilson, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 09, September 2006.

In February 1996, a UNESCO-organized conference projected that many of Egypt’s archaeological sites will have completely deteriorated within 200 years. Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), disagrees: “I believe that the situation in Egypt is even more critical.”

With the host of problems threatening the remnants of Pharaonic civilization, he estimates that much of Egypt’s cultural history could be gone in half that time.

Easily the most publicized of his efforts to preserve Egypt’s past was last month’s move of the 11-meter-tall statue of Ramses II from Downtown to the site of the new Grand Egyptian Museum being built near the Pyramids.

Hawass wishes people had protested when the statue was first placed Downtown, but can understand why many didn’t. “If you look at a picture of the square at that time, it was beautiful: clean, not much traffic. Now, it’s filthy and crowded, you have bridges above it, busy train stations, popular mosques and worst — the Metro underneath it”...

Stone Man Walking, Cache Seel, Egypt Today, Egypt, Volume 27, Issue 09, September 2006.

Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garranah announced that 91 hotels offering new 16,267 rooms were constructed from July 2005 to June 30, 2006.

The Minister said that these new tourist projects were part of projects promised during the presidential campaign of President Hosni Mubarak.

Minister Garranah added that according to the presidential pledge the Ministry of Tourism was committed to increasing hotel capacity in the country by 15,000 every year.

The Minister disclosed that more than 129,621 hotel rooms were under construction...

How many? He exclaimed.

16,267 new hotel rooms built within a year, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 04, 2006.

Archaeologists have uncovered five complete Pharaonic statues and four statue heads in the Avenue of the Ram-Headed Sphinxes during excavation works in Karnak.

The statues were in an astonishingly very good shape and had hieroglyphic inscriptions on them.

Monday's al-Akhbar daily quoted the chief of Luxor Higher Council, Samir Farag, as saying that the new find proved the importance of excavations at the site...

New historical find unearthed in Karnak, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, September 04, 2006.

The Theban Mapping Project announces the publication of the Valley of the Kings Site Management Masterplan on the TMP’s website @ www.thebanmappingproject.com.

The Valley of the Kings (Wadi Biban el Mouluk) on the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, in the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a World Heritage site whose archaeological fame and economic importance as a tourist destination are internationally recognized. The result of its popularity has been a massive increase in visitor numbers over the last decade, now often exceeding 7,000 visitors every day. This number is guaranteed to increase in future years. Without carefully prepared site management plans, the very existence of this fragile resource could be seriously threatened.

In the spring of 2004, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) commissioned the Theban Mapping Project to prepare a site management masterplan for the Valley. This project was generously supported by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), and the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE), and several private donors.

This “final draft for public consulation” is now available for you to download and we would very much like to have your feedback regarding our proposal for the future of this very important site.

Nigel J. Hetherington
Conservation Manager
Theban Mapping Project
www.thebanmappingproject.com

Many thanks to Nigel for alerting me to this.

Valley of the Kings Site Management Masterplan, Dr Kent R. Weeks, Nigel J. Hetherington, Edited by Lucy T. Jones, Theban Mapping Project, Cairo, Egypt, 2006.

The Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and the Adler Planetarium are excited to announce the new Museum Campus Pass: Two Kings and a Pharaoh!

The royal celebration has encompassed the entire campus! The Field Museum hosts the blockbuster exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, Shedd Aquarium presents the popular Lizards and the Komodo King, and the Adler Planetarium showcases the spectacular Egyptian Universe — Egyptian Nights: Secrets of the Sky Gods and Stars of the Pharaohs. The Museum Campus Pass is available from September 5 through October 31 [2006]...

Museum Campus Pass: Two Kings and a Pharaoh, PRNewswire, USA, September 01, 2006.

The Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Special Exhibition Gallery didn’t look quite ready last week for a vast display of Egyptian antiquities, but several large statues gave a hint of the grandeur soon to grace the hall. The giant “Head of Amenhotep III” smiled down from a tall pedestal. The massive red granite “Lion of Amenhotep III Reinscribed for Tutankhamun” lounged in its own display space. The stone “Architectural Slab of Nectanebo I,” adorned with elaborate hieroglyphics, stood dark and mysterious.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have so close these ancient objects,” said Ernesto Sanchez, the museum’s exhibit designer and associate preparator. “This is rare. ... This is amazing to have them here.”

The museum begins its 2006-07 season — its fifth season in its downtown home — with “Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from The British Museum.” The exhibit, organized by The British Museum and American Federation of Arts, opens to the public Thursday and will run through Nov. 26 [2006]...

What’s old is new Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Brandy McDonnell, The Oklahoman, Oklahoma, USA, September 03, 2006.

The Vanished City of the Pharaoh

A journey to discover the legendary lost city of Piramesse. This magnificent ancient capital was built 3000 years ago by the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses the Great, but long ago the whole city disappeared. When it was finally rediscovered by early archaeologists, it opened up a bizarre puzzle — because when Piramesse was finally found, it was in the wrong place — somewhere Ramesses the Great could not possibly have built it. Recreating the stories of both the early archaeologists and the ancient Egyptians, this film enters a lost world, recounting the strange tale of the quest for Piramesse, and following the intriguing detective work of modern archaeologists Manfred Bietak and Edgar Pusch as they solve the baffling mystery of how this great lost city could vanish, only to reappear thousands of years later — in the wrong place.

Lost Cities of the Ancients, BBC2, UK, Monday September 04, 2006, 21:00 - 22:00.

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.