The exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, at Franklin Institute in Philadelphia through Sept. 30, is bringing a passion for all things Egyptian to the City of Brotherly Love (along with an estimated 1.3 million visitors and millions of tourism dollars). After being featured at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Tutankhamun is making its final U.S. stop in Philadelphia.

During the 1976-1979 U.S. tour, The Treasures of Tutankhamun, Philadelphia wasn't included. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, wasn't about to let the city get bypassed again.

"I said, 'If King Tut goes to the States, it has to go to Philadelphia,'" said Mr. Hawass at a press conference previewing the exhibition. "I lived at 43rd and Walnut for seven years" while a doctoral student in Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania "and it was the worst part of town." Now, he says, "The town became wonderful, and I saw how it changed..."

That Midas Touch, Jillian Kalonick, Princeton and Central New Jersey Online, New Jersey, USA, February 09, 2007.