Independent researcher and author Pat Remler will present a unique one-time lecture on the birth of Egyptology at the Fleming Museum on Thursday...

Emerging in the wake of Napoleon's disastrous military expedition to Egypt in 1798, the discipline of Egyptology was founded by a group of scientists, engineers, artists and intellectuals who accompanied Napoleon for the purpose of documenting the ancient and then foreign land.

Pat Remler has worked and studied in Egypt for more than 20 years.She has a bachelors degree in art history and philosophy from Long Island University and is the author of ...

Egyptology lecture at the Fleming, The Burlington Free Press, Vermont, USA, April 09, 2007.

Egypt: Beyond the Tomb brings the ancient Egyptian world of the dead to life right here, under the Dome at Auckland Museum.

This extraordinary exhibition follows Keku, an Egyptian woman who lived 2700 years ago, as she makes the perilous journey through the underworld towards the eternal afterlife.

With over 200 ancient Egyptian burial treasures from animal mummies to the magnificently decorated sarcophagus (coffin) of Keku — Egypt: Beyond the Tomb gives visitors fascinating insights into the mysterious death rituals of this age-old civilisation.

The mysteries of Ancient Egypt have continued to capture the imagination of both young and old since discoveries of this fascinating civilisation first came to light. Auckland Museum is proud to present the most comprehensive collection of Egyptology artifacts to arrive in New Zealand for many years when Egypt: Beyond the Tomb opens at the Special Exhibition Hall under the new Dome on May 25 [2007]...

Egypt: Beyond the Tomb Coming to Auckland, Scoop, New Zealand, April 06, 2007.

Archive: Egypt: Beyond the Tomb [Coming to Te Papa], Scoop, New Zealand, November 30, 2007.

As you can see from the above archive story the exhibition was previously at Te Papa. Their website for the exhibition can be found here: Egypt: Beyond the Tomb, and includes 30 minutes (or so) of MP3 podcasts that you can listen to.

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, will soon be granted new protection in an attempt to control tourism, traffic and vandalism, Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News...

Italian publisher De Agostini is working on a project which aims to produce the most complete digital archive of Egypt's ancient art and architecture.

New imaging technology can detect and even revive faded paintings. The technology has yielded, for the first time, accurate reproductions of the tombs' scenes that were supposed to guide dead pharaohs through the afterlife...

The pictures are published by De Agostini in Hawass's new book, " ..."

Egypt Tomb Paintings Imaged in Hi-Res, Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News, USA, April 06, 2007.

On a desert site within view of the pyramids, an immense museum, built by the Chinese-American architect Shih-Fu Peng, is about to rise which will transform the Giza experience. The Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) will be the biggest museum of Egyptology in the world, and (it is claimed) the largest archaeological museum of any sort. It is designed to become the modern complement the pyramids have always lacked.

It will rise at the point where the Nile's flood plain hits the sand plateau that marks the start of the Sahara desert. The first glimpse of it, through a grove of high palms, will be a vast wall running the entire length of the site composed entirely of triangular segments of onyx. "The face of the plateau is exactly aligned with the Great Pyramid of Chephren," says Yasser Mansour, the project director. "It is the line between fertile land and the desert, between life and death. So what kind of line should this be, how to represent its aesthetic qualities? The architect answered that it should be a timeless surface, and as light is timeless, it should be translucent."

Initially the architect wanted alabaster, the luminous pink stone that some believe once covered the pyramids. "But the quality and quantity of alabaster seemed very thin," says Mansour. He settled instead for semi-precious onyx: the contractors are now scouring the world's markets for a quantity sufficient to cover six football fields.

This stupendous facade, which Mansour describes as one of the museum's two "icons", along with the grand staircase, suggests that the design is offering competition for awesomeness to the pyramids. Mansour denies that flatly. "The highest point of the museum — the top of the facade — is actually the lowest point of the pyramids, which are built on the plateau. This way you don't compare the museum with the greatness of the pyramids: it's a humble statement..."

Legacy of the Pharaohs: Welcome to the treasure dome, The Independent, UK, April 06, 2007.

John Romer's The Great Pyramid is subtitled "Ancient Egypt Revisited" — and for an excellent reason. The focus of the book is on Khufu's pyramid on the Giza Plateau, built 4500 years ago for the 4th dynasty Old Kingdom pharaoh Khufu over an astonishingly brief 14 year period. But Romer's decades of study have led him to identify not simply the patterns of construction or the amount of labour involved in such a process, but a thorough examination of the pyramid-making tradition of Old Kingdom Egypt, including the lives of the people who made the pyramids, who inspired their construction, and who spent their lives studying them...

... the book expresses Romer's awe for the pyramid, and instils it deep within the reader. Romer realizes for the reader the complexities of inventing the ideal pyramid, such as evidence for the plans of the pyramid, drawn at a one-to-one scale on the ground surface at the Giza plateau. The amazing success of the intricate granite cobweb of passageways within the Great Pyramid are highlighted with the great previous failures. The ancient Egyptian concepts of death and the importance of keeping one's dead rulers in view are contemplated. Throughout, Romer's writing is impassioned...

The Great Pyramid is a book I plan on revisiting many times in the future. The many photographs, the depth of information and the writing style make this a perfect companion for people, like me, distant admirers of the Egyptian pyramids, seen floating in a desert mirage in our imaginations...

, John Romer, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 586.

The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited, K. Kris Hirst, About.com, USA, April 02, 2007.

Previously:

Book Review: The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited by John Romer, March 01, 2007.

Minister of Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Mofeed Shehab said during the inauguration of the 4th conference of the Arab Tourist Guides Federation that the government plans to increase the tourist investments in Egypt.

Shehab indicated that Tourism Ministry seeks to bring the number of tourists to 16 million tourists in 2014.

Shehab cited efforts exerted by the ministry during the recent period in this regard.

Shehab indicated that some $15 billion are required as investments to develop the new tourist destinations in Egypt...

Egypt seeks to attract 16 million tourists, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 08, 2007.

Locks of 3,200-year-old hair from the pharaoh Rameses II were unveiled at the Egyptian Museum on Tuesday, returned to Egypt after being stolen 30 years ago in France and put up for sale on the Internet.

The small tufts of brown hair were displayed alongside pieces of linen bandages and 11 pieces of resin used in the mummification of Rameses and his son Merenptah in a glass display case. Photographers mobbed the case as Egypt's culture minister and antiquities chief showed off the returned items.

The hair will eventually be put on display next to Rameses' mummy at the museum.

The theft of the items was discovered when the pieces of hair were put up for sale on a Web site last November by a French postman, Jean-Michel Diebolt, who gave the hair a price tag of $2,600...

Ancient pharaoh's hair returns to Egypt, Setarreh Massihzadegan, AP via The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, April 10, 2007.

Previously:

Egyptian archaeological returns from France with mummy's hair, April 02, 2007.

Egypt's team heads for France to retrieve mummy's hair, March 30, 2007.

France to return 'pharaoh's hair' to Egypt, February 26, 2007.

France Says 'Pharaoh's Hair' Scandal in Police's Hands, December 04, 2006.

Frenchman arrested for trying to sell lock of pharaoh's hair, November 29, 2006.

I've been wondering for some time now what to do with all of my empty Epson printer cartridges from the last several years. I'm on my second Epson printer and I have been storing the empties hoping to find a way to recycle them as every company that recycles cartridges says NOT to send Epson's.

Cartridges4Charity.co.uk has details of what to do with them... You send them back to Epson Themselves through Epson Express Centres. Details here: Epson Cartridge Recycling.

Cartridges4Charity also collect other inkjet cartridge brands and old mobile phones for charity.