The mystery and splendour of ancient Egypt has come to the North Carolina Museum of Art.

"Temples and Tombs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the British Museum" opens today and continues through July 8 [2007].

Members of the media, along with the show's corporate sponsors, attended a preview on Thursday...

The 85 objects in the show represent ancient Egypt on a grand scale, but also showcase antiquities in unbelievably exquisite detail.

"Many of these objects haven't looked this good in the last 5,000 to 6,000 years," Maree said, complementing the show's lighting and dark-blue walls. "Every piece looks absolutely fabulous..."

Exhibition catalogue: , Edna R. Russmann, T. G. H. James, and Nigel Strudwick, American Federation of Arts, 2006, pp. 136.

Temples and Tombs, Susan Shinn, Salisbury Post, North Carolina, USA, April 15, 2007.

[A] University of Toronto doctoral candidate named Caroline Rocheleau spent two summer months at Madaba, as the Jordanian city is now known. Dressed in an old cotton T-shirt, cotton pants, wool socks and steel-toed boots, she would walk two miles with hoes, buckets and rubber baskets for a day of digging.

In the diary she kept there, she describes the careful measurements and record-keeping, and the removal of pottery shards that she would glue back together later. Piecing together the past is an exacting business.

Growing up in Kenya and visiting Egypt, Rocheleau knew early that she wanted to be an archaeologist. By the time she returned home to Canada to begin her college studies, the subject was far more tangible than just something she had read in textbooks...

I was initially confused when I found this story as I actually found the second one linked below first &8212; which is just a list of famous archaeologists — that I presume was a box-out in the printed edition.

Dig this, Craig Jarvis, The Raleigh News & Observer, North Carolina, USA, April 15, 2007.

You might have heard of these archaeologists, Craig Jarvis, The Raleigh News & Observer, North Carolina, USA, April 15, 2007.

There are still mysteries, but Bonnie M. Sampsell has been a super sleuth, helping the Wayne County Historical Museum answer many questions about its mummy and its Egyptian collection.

Richmond native Sampsell, who now lives in Chapel Hill, [North Carolina], started putting her passion for Egyptology to work for the museum last summer. She began cataloguing the artefacts, researching the collection and updating the mummy's display.

On Sunday, during the museum's annual meeting, Sampsell [discussed] what she learned.

"It just ties everything together well and gives us a lot more information that we did not know," said Jim Harlan, executive director of the Wayne County Historical Museum. "Everybody thinks it's a very professional job."

Many of the questions cantered on the mummy — a favourite of visiting school children for years. Museum founder Julia Meek Gaar bought the mummy during a 1929 visit to Cairo, Egypt. She was told the mummy had been on exhibition in a curio store there for 40 years before the shop owner decided to sell it to her.

Sampsell used X-rays taken of the mummy in 1974 and 2000, a CAT scan done in 2000, along with other photographs and information to seek answers during her own recent trip to Cairo...

Bonnie M. Sampsell is the author of (How the Land Made Egypt What It Is), The American University in Cairo Press, 2003, pp. 272.

Mummy's the word for museum meeting, Rachel E. Sheeley, Palladium-Item, Indiana USA, April 14, 2007, via EEF News.

A father aged 84 and his son have been charged over the £440,000 sale of an allegedly fake Egyptian statue.

The Amarna Princess was bought in 2003 by Bolton Council, which believed it was a 3,300-year-old antiquity.

Experts determined the 20in (51cm) sculpture was not genuine, after special tests last year.

George Greenhalgh, 84, and his son Shaun Greenhalgh from Bolton, have been charged with laundering the proceeds of sale of the statue...

Two men charged over fake statue, BBC News, UK, April 21, 2007.

cf. £1m fake statue: family charged, Amanda Smith, The Bolton News, UK, April 21, 2007.

cf. Four on fake statue charge, Manchester Evening News, UK, April 23, 2007.

cf. Egyptian statue that cost council £440,000 is a forgery, This is London, UK, April 23, 2007.

Previously:

Fake £1m statue: Bail extended for trio, March 01, 2007.

The ancient Egypt statue from Bolton (circa 2003), March 28, 2006.

More on £500,000 statue in police 'fake' probe, March 21, 2006.

Two held as '£1m Egyptian statue' is found to be a fake, March 21, 2006.

Egyptian statue in forgery claim, March 20, 2006.

Archive:

cf. Museum secures rare Egyptian sculpture, BBC News, UK, September 30, 2003.

Secretary of the Supreme Council for Antiquities Zahi Hawass confirmed on April 20 that he will send an official letter to the director of Berlin's Altes Museum, requesting the approval of officials of the museum on loaning Nefertiti bust to Egypt for a three-month period, on the occasion of inaugurating the largest world museum of antiquities in mid June 2011 and which is currently set up by Ministry of Cultural on 117-fedden area on Alexandria Desert Road.

Hawass said the request shows keenness of Cultural Ministry officials to provide the chance for Egyptian and foreign visitors of the grand museum to witness their beautiful queen Nefertiti amid her counterparts of Egypt's ancient Pharaonic history.

Hawass rejected statements made lately by the German culture minister and museum director on the disapproval of German officials to Egypt's request of their loaning Nefertiti bust as they claimed danger of its damage during freight and transport.

Egypt officially requests Nefertiti bust, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 21, 2007.

Previously:

Nefertiti: Face to face, April 20, 2007.

Egypt Vows 'Scientific War' If Germany Doesn't Loan Nefertiti, April 19, 2007.

Berlin museum rebuffs threat over Nefertiti, April 17, 2007.

Egypt threatens German ban in Nefertiti row, April 16, 2007.

Nefertiti Is Too Fragile to Visit Egypt, German Minister Says, April 13, 2007.

Some 775,000 tourists from different world's countries visited Egypt last February, up by 16% compared to February 2006, said chairman of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) Abu Bakr Al-Gendi.

Tourist nights spent by those tourists accounted for 6.4 million nights, with 15.3% increase versus February 2006, he added.

European tourists topped the list of tourists that visited Egypt last February followed by tourists from the Middle East countries, East Asia, North America and Africa.

Arab tourists totalled 124,600 up by 1.1% compared to February 2006.

775,000 tourists visited Egypt last February, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 20, 2007.

Egypt officially protested against a contest sponsored by a Swiss Tourist Company to choose the new wonders of the world.

The Giza Pyramids in Egypt were ruled out from the contest.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that he sent an official address to the UNESCO Director General, the Chairman of the World Heritage Committee, and the UNESCO Culture Director General asking them to intervene and immediately stop this farce.

This is rather bizarre as on the same day we have “Egypt’s pyramids out of seven wonders contest”.

Egypt officially protests against the farce of new contest on world wonders, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, April 20, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt's pyramids out of seven wonders contest, April 20, 2007.

Remains of an ancient Egyptian wall used to prevent the leakage of the Nile flood waters from spreading over the Karnak temple in Luxor were discovered on Thursday at the temple’s eastern side, culture minister Farouk Hosni announced on Sunday.

Hosni revealed that the wall was accidentally found by Egyptian excavators during an archaeological inspection of the site undertaken as part of a development project aimed at removing encroachments accumulated over the years on the temple’s different sides.

Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), explained that the newly-discovered wall is only 400 km long and 7m in height.

More excavations will reveal more relevant structures, said Hawass...

A Karnak discovery shows how ancient builders shielded temples from Nile water, Ahmed Maged, The Egypt Daily Star, Egypt, April 22, 2007.

Some of the new mummies that have been unearthed of late are likely to be those of ancient Egypt’s most controversial royals, announced Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Egypt’s chief archaeologist, who spoke on Wednesday to a packed hall at the American University in Cairo, noted that the mummies that are awaiting confirmation of scanning tests are among some of the new discoveries in the field of archaeology. This is in addition to a number of new findings from excavations which were carried out in Heliopolis and the Valley of the Kings, Luxor.

Hawass also said that four doors that have been pinpointed inside the big pyramid could also reveal some of the secrets of that ancient wonder.

He pointed out that the controversial mummies are thought to be those of Queen Hatshepsut, the only female ruler in ancient Egypt, whose mummy was found in Al Deir El Bahari along with that of her father Thutmose I.

Hawass continued: “But the result of scanning will be announced on July 15 [2007] when tests are completed, along with a thorough examination of the mummies of her brother and husband Thutmose II and Thutmose III that will also be tested for purposes of comparison.”

Hawass also said that a tomb tucking away at a Ptolemaic site near Alexandria could be sheltering the mummies of Antony and Cleopatra...

As for discoveries within the big pyramid, Hawass said that the council is waiting for the arrival of the robot required to infiltrate the edifice and provide data.

Hawass also announced that a temple belonging to King Rameses II, as well as a number of other tombs, were unearthed in Heliopolis...

Chief archaeologist announces fresh discoveries, Ahmed Maged, The Egypt Daily Star, Egypt, April 19, 2007.