Figurines of King Tut, Ramses and Queen Nefertiti in Cairo's famous Khan Khalili bazaar all bear the hallmarks of pharaonic regalia, from the goats-hair beards to the golden sceptre.

But the slanting eyes framed by the ancient Egyptian rulers' trademark kohl lining betrays the statuettes' Chinese origins.

While Egypt is increasingly betting on the irresistible rise of China's economy for its own prosperity, the unbeatable prices of the Asian giant's products are breaking into the last strongholds of local manufacturing...

Egypt trembles in front of ‘made in China’ pharaohs, Middle East Online, UK, October 31, 2006.

Today, it sounds like a spring-break splurge on the order of "Girls Gone Wild": Drink huge quantities of beer, get wasted, indulge in gratuitous sex and pass out — then wake up the next morning with the music blaring and your friends praying that everything will turn out all right.

But back in 1470 B.C., this was the agenda for one of ancient Egypt's most raucous rituals, the "festival of drunkenness," which celebrated nothing less than the salvation of humanity. Archaeologists say they have found evidence amid the ruins of a temple in Luxor that the annual rite featured sex, drugs and the ancient equivalent of rock 'n' roll.

Johns Hopkins University's Betsy Bryan, who has been leading an excavation effort at the Temple of Mut since 2001, laid out her team's findings on the drinking festival here on Saturday during the annual New Horizons in Science briefing, presented by the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing...

Sex and booze figured in Egyptian rites, Alan Boyle, MSNBC, USA, October 30, 2006.

If you want truly to appreciate a work of art, there's no substitute for seeing it in person. To celebrate the launch of the Guardian's new arts blog, we're asking you to help compile a definitive list of must-see masterpieces. Jonathan Jones kicks it off with his own top 20...

Whilst the list if dominated by renaissance artists such as Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio and several more modern artists such as Picasso and Mark Rothko, three ancient works are also present: San rock art, the Parthenon Sculptures, and the Funerary mask of Tutankhamun.

Unmissable, Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, UK, October 30, 2006.

The leading lot in Christie’s sale of Antiquities, to take place on December 7 [2006], is an Egyptian painted wood sarcophagus and mummy for Neskhons, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty XXI, circa 990 – 940 B.C. (estimate on request). Sarcophagi of this quality rarely appear on the market and Christie’s is delighted to offer this exquisite consignment. The last time a mummy with sarcophagus was sold at auction was in May 2003, when Christie’s South Kensington sold the sarcophagus and mummy of a priest of Amun for $1.4 million which still stands as the world auction record for a sarcophagus and mummy.

“This is the finest quality sarcophagus to have come to the market in the past two decades,” says G. Max Bernheimer, International Head of the Antiquities department. “The fact that it still contains its mummy and that it comes with an impeccable provenance having been in the United States since the turn of the last century, makes it all the more exceptional.”

The death of many high-ranking or aristocratic Egyptians would have been lost to history but for the fact that they occurred in a time and a place where extensive efforts were made to assure a continuation of life for all eternity. The present mummy and superbly decorated sarcophagus are those of Neskhons, a Stolist — one who performs a ritual for anointing, clothing and otherwise potentiating the cult-image of the god in his Temple — who passed away due to unknown causes while in his twenties. His body was embalmed and the separately embalmed internal organs were replaced inside the body in wrapped bundles together with amulets. The body was expertly wrapped in good quality linen with amulets and placed inside a coffin of sycamore fig wood. The sarcophagus had been gessoed and extensively inscribed in hieroglyphs revealing the mummy’s identity. Neskhons’ burial took place during the Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty XXI, circa 990 – 940 B.C...

Egyptian Painted Wood Sarcophagus at Christie's, Art Daily, Mexico, October 30, 2006.