Two top Italian archaeologists will join the international efforts to save ancient artefacts from being submerged by a dam project in Sudan, Italian news agency ANSA reported Wednesday.

Twin brothers Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni, experts on Sudan's ancient history, have been called up to join the efforts coordinated by the British Museum of London and the National Corporation for Antiquities of Khartoum.

The two 69-year-old Italians are perhaps most famous for their 1989 discovery of the ancient Egyptian "city of gold", Berenice Panchrysos, which is in today's Sudan.

The Merowe hydro-electric dam on the Nile River, Africa's largest hydropower project, is being built in the heart of Nubia, a region that stretches across southern Egypt and northern Sudan...

Italian archaeologists to join international efforts to save Sudan's ancient artefacts, Xinhua via People's Daily Online, China, March 01, 2007.

Back to the future

the itinerary of our day was all set, and it was decided that we would begin with the mummies. There were, after all, new mummies in perfect condition discovered but recently in the oasis, which should provide a good history lesson for the little ones in our midst. My recollection of the Bahariya Museum had remained focussed, for the last eight years since I last saw it, on the dead fly I had noticed in the glass casing of one of the mummies on display. Yet considering the passing of time, as well as the snazzy bus terminal from whence we departed, I had set my hopes on finding a similar face-lift to the sorry museum etched in my memory. Surprise, surprise — the very same fly was still to be found in the same casing, as the Bahariya Museum seemed to be the only aspect of the oasis, along with its sand dunes and palm gardens, not to reflect any evolution in 2,920 days and nights.

On a more positive note, though, we did manage this time to visit the rock-cut tomb of Zed Amun Efu Ankh, the overseers of merchants from the 26th Dynasty. Since we were denied entry in the past, being finally allowed to descend the winding staircase of the deep shaft for an encounter of the Ancient Egyptian kind offered a bit of consolation. The children were terribly excited, but we ladies were even gigglier than they as we bent over to squeeze through the narrow passageway leading to the four-columned hall of the burial chambers. Inside, Anubis the jackal stood on the wall in all his majesty clasping an ankh, while Thoth held a papyrus scroll rolled up in his hand with poor Zed's deeds all recorded for judgement. The side chambers, later reused for burial by the Romans (whose presence is heavily felt in Bahariya), remained inaccessible. Not that it really mattered since they pale in comparison to the main hall and its antechamber where we spent a good half-hour deciphering the writing on the brightly-coloured walls.

As we climbed out, a beautiful gift awaited: the sky had miraculously cleared to offer the blue dome I so longed to behold...

Back to the future, Injy El-Kashef, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

Desert virgin

We were going to start with Pharaonic Egypt. On site, however, we were rather disappointed to find a museum so humble and unattended to that even the mummies were in deteriorated condition, obviously untouched by any attempt at restoration.

Unlike other museums where information is posted beside the object on display, there was nothing to indicate the mummies' history except for the few words offered by the museum guard. We were told that in 1999, by mere coincidence, the valley of the golden mummies was discovered six kms into the desert. I wondered: if those on display are in such a state, what has become of the less fortunate?

Our next stop was the tomb of Zed Amun Efu Ankh. To reach its insides we had to go down a very steep ladder then pass through a hole in the wall like that of the Cheops Pyramid. Once again, I decided to defy my fear. After all, if the boys can, then surely I, too, can...

Desert virgin, Jailan Halawi, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

From Assyrian to Persian, from Roman to Nubian, invasions besieged Egypt through the course of time. Some left valuable relics and some built whole temples. Mohamed El Hebeishy discovers one of only two temples that date back to the Persian period.

It wasn't before 525 BC when the ambitious Persian Emperor Cambyses ventured into Egypt through the desert, easily defeating Pharaoh Psamtek III in the battle of Pelusium. The 27th Dynasty was then declared and Egypt was under Persian rule for the next 193 years.

Though his conquest of Egypt was fairly easy, Cambyses was unfortunate in both his subsequent military campaigns as well as being a monarch. He personally led an ill-fated invasion of Ethiopia that was so disastrous that history records his mercenary army feeding on the flesh of their own colleagues as food supplies were short. The other military fiasco was the Siwa campaign, better remembered as the Lost Army of Cambyses, where 50,000 men vanished without a trace amidst a sandstorm in the Western Desert of Egypt...

Snap Shots, Mohamed El-Hebeishy, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

Amongst the Islamic monuments in the busy Cairo district of Bab Al-Khalq stands the Kutub Khana Al-Khedewiya, also known as the Dar Al-Kutub Al-Masriya (Egyptian National Library). For six years this splendid Islamic building has been hidden under ugly iron scaffolding, but now the Dar Al-Kutub — built in 1904 and the first National Library to have been built in the Arab world — has been resurrected with its original features so as to continue its cultural role of welcoming visitors and researchers and of preserving the nation's intangible heritage. President and Mrs Hosni Mubarak, along with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, attended last Sunday's reopening.

Since Khedive Ismail took the initiative to build Egypt's National Library and Archive, modelled on the national library in Paris, it has been Egypt's treasure house for manuscripts, rare books and ancient Egyptian papyri. Opened in 1870, it reflected the role of culture in enhancing the development of society as a whole. Khedive Ismail offered all manner of support and assistance to his minister of education to fulfill his ambitions. One of modern Egypt's greatest rulers, he supported the international role of Egyptian culture with its cultural and literary outpourings, history, and heritage. Khedive Ismail's Kutub Khana made a large contribution to Arab and Islamic culture. Since its opening, the library has served as a national university and has nurtured and inspired thousands of thinkers and scientists.

In 1886 a new law was issued stipulating the deposition of any publications in the library's registers in an attempt to enhance the library with the latest publications. However, in 1898 the palace of Prince Mostafa Fadel which was used as the library premises, became overcrowded with the constant flow of new books and publications, a matter that led the Ministry of Public Works to choose a new plot of land in Bab Al-Khalq for a new library building...

Back on the shelf, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

My hat is a part of my life. It really is very important to me, despite the criticism I sometimes receive from Egyptians who make various comments, the most repeated one being: "He is such a cowboy, or an American." Actually, the hat is Australian, not American. My hat is well known all over the world. When people see me without it they always ask, "where is the hat, Zahi?"

The story of this hat began many years ago. When I started my career, I used to wear a white cotton hat. However, I soon realised that this did not offer me total protection from the sun and besides, it didn't look good. Still, I continued to wear this hat for another seven years while I was excavating the archaeological site of Al-Ashmunein in Middle Egypt and the famous Delta site of Kom Au Bellou, where I discovered my passion for archaeology.

One upon a time while teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), I had a student named Patti Rabbit. It was she who brought me my current hat, which I wear to this day. She told me that this hat will always bring me luck...

Lucky rabbit's hat, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

Ever since its discovery in 1954, the magnificent 4,600-year-old wooden funerary barge of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, has been kept in poorly managed conditions. Its progressive deterioration has been calamitous. At long last, however, the responsibility of preparing a condition and conservation report on the vessel has been handed to Hani Hanna, chair of the International Conference on Heritage of the Naqada and Qus region, Egypt 2007.

Hanna summarised his comprehensive study by pointing out that the boat museum's environment and tourist visitation procedures needed to be urgently addressed, since the vessel had already been adversely affected by direct and indirect damage from humidity, temperature fluctuation, light and pollution. Outlining the reasons for and the extent of the damage, Hanna cited the serious harm caused by a wide range of other factors. "These include weakening, flaking, corrosion, dryness and brittleness in some areas of wood as well as widening of the separations between the wooden planks; breakage, cracks, warping, and twisting; cavities, gaps and holes in various places due to insect infestation; and changes in the colour of the wood due to fungal infection and photo- sensitised degradation due to UV-radiation and visible light," he said.

The list seemed endless, and eyebrows were raised when Hanna told his audience at the international conference that extensive damage had also resulted from defective former restorations, and the metamorphosis of consolidation, coating and restoration materials. Much to everyone's astonishment, he added: "there are several oil paint spots resulting from the painting of the interior of the museum building..."

Don't sink the boat, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 834, March 01 - 07, 2007.

Brookdale Community College's History and Anthropology departments are offering a semester-long series marking the return of the treasures of Tutankhamen to the United States.

The series includes several lectures that are free for students and $3 for others.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, the lecturer will be , who is known as "Mr. Mummy" and has studied mummification practices worldwide. It will be held at the Warner Student Life Centre, Navesink II room. For more information, call (732) 224-2500.

Brookdale lecture to focus on mummies, Asbury Park Press, New Jersey, USA, March 02, 2007.