Mark Millmore's first literary offering is fantastic! It's much more than a book, more a trip through a time that we're all broadly familiar with, but with an eye to detail that makes the reader feel they're right there, and any previous knowledge they may have had of the Land of the Pharaohs was plainly inadequate.

'Imagining Egypt' is actually a bit of a misleading title. The reader doesn't need to imagine that much because the sheer depth of information in Millmore's book is vast. But don't get me wrong, this isn't page after page of boring writing with a few line drawings thrown in for good measure. This book is a full colour journey that really does bring to life the wonders of ancient Egypt.

So how does Millmore's book differ from all the others on offer on the subject. Well, as the author is a fine artist, theatre, designer, web designer and art director, it's no surprise to find the book littered with unique computer based images of ancient monuments and temples recreated to look as they would have done in their own time, accompanied by pictures of the sites as they are today, with maps, timelines and other images...

, Mark Millmore, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers Inc, 2007, pp. 192. A special signed edition including a CD-ROM can be purchased from Mark Millmore's website.

Mark Millmore - 'Imagining Egypt', Clare Fischer, 24dash.com, UK, March 23, 2007.

If you think that finding a smart, intelligent, well-written action thriller is as tough as deciphering hieroglyphics, the book you're looking for is "Napoleon's Pyramids." It has a plot as satisfying as an Indiana Jones film and offers enough historical knowledge to give the reader a fascinating raconteur on the topics of ancient Egypt and Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the centre of William Dietrich's engaging novel is the young Ethan Gage, a former protégé of Benjamin Franklin set on a path to danger and high adventure when he wins an ancient medallion during a card game.

Set upon by enemies who crave the medallion, Gage flees Paris and joins Napoleon's military expedition to Egypt. There, his enemies in pursuit, he fights alongside Napoleon's troops, has lengthy conversations with the feisty general, travels deep into the pyramids, falls in love with a slave girl and searches for the medallion's secret...

, William Dietrich, HarperCollins, 2007, pp. 400.

Book Review: Napoleon's Pyramids, Carol Memmott, USA Today via The Indianapolis Star, Indiana, USA, March 25, 2007.

Conservators Amy Fernandez Byrne and her husband, Greg Byrne, from Shepherdstown, West Virginia worked on last year’s conservation show and couldn’t resist doing the same this year. They’re donating their services to conserve three pieces — a 13th-century Persian cuneiform bowl, an American mid-1940s Pomo Indian basket and a Roman 2nd-century bottle-flask. In 2006, they repaired an Egyptian falcon sarcophagus from 664 B.C., which was adopted by Tom and Arlene Baragona. The small, narrow box is topped with a statue rendering of the Egyptian god, Horus, with a falcon head and a human body. Inside was once the body of an un-mummified falcon.

The box, with a small hole in a corner and patches of light green-blue on the otherwise bluish-black surface, does not look perfect, which is surprising to someone unfamiliar with art conservation. Amy Byrne explained by e-mail that the Hermitage decided to focus on repairing “active corrosion.”

“Physical damage (on the proper right back side, underside and back panel) could have been addressed, but it was decided that the damage was quite old and did not threaten the piece. Damage and wear are often considered part of the character of antiquities,” Byrne wrote.

To fix the active corrosion, which was identified as “bronze disease,” Byrne first used organic and aliphatic solvents to degrease and clean the sarcophagus. She then removed the corrosion products and treated the affected area with a copper alloy corrosion inhibitor and applied a barrier coat of wax. The work took about five hours...

Time Does Not Heal Broken Art, Kristen De Deyn Kirk, Port Folio Weekly, Virginia, USA, March 27, 2007.

"How could I have been so foolish as to have missed this until now?" I said to myself over and over one day while 785 miles south of Cairo visiting Abu Simbel, near the Egypt-Sudan border in an area where the ancient Egypt of the Pharaohs once stood looking out toward the ancient Kingdom of Nubia.

The four gigantic figures of Egypt's longest reigning pharaoh tower 66 feet high and are set against a 108-feet-high facade recessed into the side of a cliff - an absolutely incredible work of ancient Egyptian art that rivals the pyramids. Not many steps away, a smaller temple is flanked by six 35-foot-high alternating states of Rameses II and his favourite wife Queen Nefertari portrayed as the goddess Hathor.

Both the larger Temple of Rameses II and the smaller Temple of Queen Nefertari were erected in the 13th century, B.C., to impress and intimidate visitors travelling from southern Africa with this stunning display of the grandeur of Egypt and the greatness of Rameses II...

Travel and Adventure: Egypt - look beyond the pyramids, Fred J. Eckert, The Bend Weekly, Oregon, USA, March 23, 2007.

cf. Egypt: Beyond the pyramids, Fred J. Eckert, The Birmingham News, Alabama, USA, March 25, 2007.

I think this is the same story as this one previously: Travel: Egypt Rediscovered, March 27, 2007.

a small section of that collection is set to arrive in Perth [at the Art Gallery of Western Australia] in July after an exhibition in Adelaide where more than 150,000 people are expected to take it in at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Made up of 500 individual pieces the exhibition, Journey to the Afterlife, is one of the most complex to be brought to Adelaide.

Louvre curator Marc Etienne has travelled with his precious cargo and worked with gallery staff for almost two weeks to install the pieces.

Mr Etienne said the obsession Egyptians appeared to have with death showed equally their love of life...

Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife is at the Art Gallery of South Australia between March 01 – July 01, 2007 and at the Art Gallery of Western Australia between July 21 – October 28, 2007.

Egyptian exhibition reflects both life and death, AAP via The West Australian, Australia, March 21, 2007.

cf. More than mere mummies, Patrick McDonald, The Adelaide Advertiser, Australia, March 21, 2007.