A new ancient Egyptian-themed kids' discovery room is opening at the Museum of the Rockies on Saturday, Jan. 20 [2007]. To celebrate the arrival of the exhibit, "King Tut: 'Wonderful Things' from the Pharaoh's Tomb" that will be on display from March 3 through Sept. 3 [2007], the Martin Discovery Room is being redesigned with an Egyptian theme.

Children will be able to excavate Egyptian treasures in a dig pit and learn about hieroglyphics. They can also try on costumes, play with toys and read books, all with an Egyptian theme.

An adult must accompany children using the discovery room. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and admission is included in the standard museum admission rate.

The Museum of the Rockies is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 12:30 to 5 p.m. in the winter and spring. Admission for museum members is free and for non-members is $8 for adults, $4 for children 5 through 18, and free for children 4 and under. Planetarium features are free for members and $3 for non-members...

New ancient Egyptian-themed kids' discovery room opening Saturday at museum, MSU Today, Montana State University, Montana, USA, January 16, 2007.

Pushy bazaar merchants and poor waiter service are a bigger threat to Egypt's tourism industry than the bombs of Islamic militants, Tourism Minister Zoheir Garranah told AFP in an interview. Garranah said figures released Sunday show that tourist arrivals held up in 2006 despite a devastating April suicide bombing in the Red Sea resort of Dahab that killed 20 people, including vacationing foreigners.

A record 9.81 million tourists contributed $7.6 billion to Egypt's economy last year, the minister told AFP...

The length of visits increased too, with each tourist staying an average 9.83 days...

Foreign tourists regularly complain of bazaar salesmen trying to push "authentic" Pharaonic perfumes, of slow and unresponsive waiters in restaurants and of over-eager camel guides harassing them into over-priced rides around the pyramids.

"People took it for granted that everybody would come to Egypt [and] it's true," Garranah said. "But the people are treating tourists badly, they are harassing them and are not providing proper services..."

Egyptian tourism minister bemoans pushy merchants, AFP via The Daily Star, Lebanon, January 15, 2007.

A note on display at a blockbuster exhibit of Egyptian antiquities in Canberra explains the importance the sun to the people of the pharaohs, who themselves were blighted by the Nile's cycles of flood and drought.

"Provider of life, its excessive force is also the cause of drought, the arid climate and the absence of life in the desert," the text advises about the sun, as visitors nod in understanding after having driven past sun-scorched land themselves.

Their trip may not be as harrowing as the passage to the underworld of Osiris, but up to 4,000 Australians are showing up each day at the exhibit, one of the world's most significant collections of ancient Egyptian art, which was sent south courtesy of Marc Etienne, curator of the Louvre museum in Paris...

Journey to the Afterlife: Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre is at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, until 25 February. It moves to the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, from March 21 to July 1, followed by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, from July 21 to October 28 [2007].

Parched Australians flood ancient Egypt exhibit, Rob Taylor, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, January 19, 2007.

Amazement Square in Lynchburg is featuring an exhibit called "Ancient Egypt Life & Afterlife on the Nile."

Beginning Saturday, children can visit the interactive exhibit and learn how to "Write Like an Egyptian." It runs from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is $6.

There are two videos on this page also.

Learn how to write like an Egyptian at Amazement Square, WDBJ7, Virginia, USA, January 19, 2007.

You'll have to pardon Tanet-Paheku if he's a bit late for the big show. He's been dead for 2,500 years, after all.

The mummy of Tanet-Paheku, a young child who died in ancient Egypt between 656 BC and 343 BC, will be installed at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens this morning. It should be available for public viewing by this afternoon, said Amy Laubach Chamberlin, manager of marketing at the Riverside Avenue museum.

The Cummer's big new show, Temples and Tombs, features ancient Egyptian artefacts on loan from the British Museum. But no mummy. Enter Tanet-Paheku, borrowed from College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, [Massachusetts] The mummy won't actually be part of Temples and Tombs and will be in the museum's Millner Gallery...

The mummy is now in the building, The Florida, Times-Union, Florida, USA, January 19, 2007.

Nacalie Cooper and her cousin, Andre Booth, make their way down steps and over an image of King Tut yesterday at the Franklin Institute Science Museum. The Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit is scheduled to run from Feb. 3, to Sept. 30 [2007].

Tripping over pharaohs, AP via Worcester telegram & Gazette, Massachusetts, USA, January 18, 2007.

The Upper Egyptian city of Luxor caught this week's headlines as President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a score of ministers embarked on a tour last Sunday to inspect the most recent development projects undertaken there, as well as inaugurating a number of historical, cultural, archaeological and tourist sites, as well as service zones for Luxor residents and tourists...

President Mubarak, known to have an interest in archaeology and culture, stopped in Luxor, the first stop of his official tour of Egyptian governorates and towns. Home to a third of Egypt's monuments, Luxor is the country's most important tourist destination.

President Mubarak began his visit with a tour of the town's east bank. He first inaugurated the Mubarak Historical Centre, which has been established ... to display Egypt's cultural and natural heritage from the ancient Egyptian times right through the Coptic and Islamic eras...

The president's second stop was at the avenue of ram-headed sphinxes that once connected the temples of Luxor and Karnak. A major excavation project is being carried out there by an archaeological team ... to reconstruct the avenue in Luxor and remove any encroachments on the important historical site...

Mansour Boreyak, director of the Luxor monuments, told Al-Ahram Weekly that since the project began two years ago, no fewer than 60 of the limestone sphinxes had been unearthed, along with a unique quartzite religious stelae of Bakenkhonsu, the high priest of Amun-Re...

... to Karnak Temple to show ... the latest developments on the east side of Luxor Temple, which was damaged by encroachments...

[And] to check on work being undertaken in the temple's front area and its surroundings. This project, which was launched in May last year, aims at protecting the monument from non-stop infringements as well as restoring the temple's ambiance to its former glory. It will remove all encroachment from the forefront of the temple in an attempt to allow excavation work to uncover the ancient harbour and a canal that was once connected to the Nile...

... a [new] visitor centre, [will be] built in similar colonial style to the house of the archaeologist George Legrain's, to provide visitors with the information they need about Karnak and its history. A memorabilia hall to commemorate the early French archaeologists who worked at Karnak, such as Auguste Mariette, Gaston Maspero, Legrain and others, will be established...

[From New Gurna] President Mubarak headed towards the Valley of the Kings to inaugurate the newly-established visitor centre. The-one-storey edifice has been built by the SCA in collaboration with the Japanese government...

... it [will] provide visitors with all the information necessary about the Valley of the Kings and its 27 royal tombs. Maps hang on the walls and there is a huge model of the valley and its causeways and corridors.

Two plasma screens show a unique film about the boy king Tutankhamun and the story behind its discovery and how its discoverer, Howard Carter, took the tomb's treasures from Luxor to the Egyptian Museum...

Viewing the treasure chest, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 828, January 18 - 24, 2007.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice no longer has time to breathe in the local culture...

When there wasn't enough time for a cultural visit, Rice's staff arranged for her to be greeted by a country's pop culture heroes, especially sports or music stars...

But as the months have passed, and the diplomatic headaches have grown, the cultural events have dropped off her schedule... But then Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak invited Rice to meet him Monday at this ancient city on the Nile, the legendary Thebes and one of the prime tourist spots in the Middle East. For a brief moment, it looked as if Rice would actually take a brief tour of Luxor Temple, which was near the hotel where she would meet Mubarak...

Rice's Packed Schedule Leaves Little Room for Cultural Visits, Glenn Kessler, The Washington Post, District of Columbia, USA, January 16, 2007.