An Egyptian Egyptologist is urging antiquities officials to take the utmost care before removing entire villages located close to major archaeological sites under the pretext that they could be housing a wealth of artefacts and treasures.

Bassam Al Shammaa cited the example of Al Gurna village on the west bank of Luxor.

Following ten years of negotiations, Al Gurna’s residents have been displaced to make room for excavators who will engage in an extensive search for monuments that might be sheltered in passages under their old houses.

“In the past, this policy could have been accepted because there was no technology to help specialists know whether anything has been lying underground,” said Al Shammaa.

“But today the modern technological advancement has made it easy to discover with the use of [seismic] tectonic devices if certain objects are buried under these places,” he added...

Is it valid removing entire villages to facilitate the excavator?, Ahmed Maged, The Daily Star, Egypt, May 02, 2007.

Despite the sad weather, bad cars and Egypt as a proud nation (where people barely know the geographical location of most African countries), there's something so compelling about the country.

At Giza, the fringes of Cairo, the taxi stops almost a kilometre away from the ancient structures that have come to define Egypt. The pyramids, one of the few remaining ancient wonders of the world, have weathered the harsh Sahara conditions and lived the test of time evoking an Arab proverb, "Man fears time but time fears the pyramids."

On the surface of the largest pyramid [Khufu], denudation has taken its toll. A substantial layer of blocks has pealed off perhaps signifying time's futile efforts at dismantling the features. But that is quite it; the rest of the pyramids remain intact...

Uganda: Comparing the Land of Pharaohs to Uganda, Eden Kironde, The Kampala Monitor via All Africa, South Africa, April 29, 2007.

The [Ramses Wissa Wassef] Art Centre received the prestigious Aga Khan Architecture Award in 1983. The Art Centre is world famous for its hand made, museum quality tapestries. The tapestries are made from natural materials dyed using natural dyes, whose plants are grown on the grounds of the Art Centre.

In this interview, Architect Ikram Nosshi discussed the Art Center’s architectural developments over the past 50 years. He also described the dye making processes used at the Centre, some of which date back to Ancient Egypt and the Coptic Era...

, Hilary Weir, Suzanne Wissa Wassef and Yoanna Wissa Wassef, Opus Publishing Ltd, 2006, pp. 64.

London Tapestry Exhibit and Book 'Egyptian Landscapes' Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre, PRNewswire via PR.com, USA, May 03, 2007.

The Museum of the Rockies is celebrating its 50th Anniversary on Saturday with free admission to the public plus cake, ice cream, live music, and balloons...

The museum and the Taylor Planetarium will be free to the public this day so bring your friends and family. Among the exhibits currently on display are Tutankhamun: "Wonderful Things" from the Pharaoh's Tomb a dazzling collection of 126 reproductions that faithfully preserves Tutankhamun's treasures...

Museum of Rockies marks 50th anniversary Saturday, =

The Helena Independent Record, Montana, USA, May 01, 2007.

Josh Bernstein and his Indiana Jones-style hat are off to Egypt, Jordan, Greece and other exciting locales for a week-long blitz of new episodes of Digging for the Truth...

The marathon of Season III begins on Monday, May 7 [2007] with the two-hour Atlantis: New Revelations, in which Bernstein goes to Greece to walk in the footsteps of Plato, who is credited with first writing of the lost city, and looks for evidence of a real Atlantis in ruins in the Mediterranean Sea...

Other new episodes include a look at what really killed the Egyptian boy king Tut (May 8), what made Rameses the Great so great (May 10), and what secrets are still held within the ancient pink-walled Jordanian city of Petra (May 11). Season III of Digging for the Truth airs May 7 to May 11 on History Television [Canada]...

Explore history Indiana Jones style, Calgary Herald, Alberta, Canada, April 28, 2007.

Dr. [Penny] Minturn will discuss her recent trip to the Middle Cemetery in Abydos, Egypt at 1 p.m. Friday in room 301 at Gila Community College.

When archaeologists wish to dig, they apply to the Egyptian Antiquities Council for different concessions to archaeological sites.

As she did in 1999, Minturn returned to Egypt, through her affiliation with the University of Michigan.

On this most recent trip, Minturn and her fellow scientists were looking for the tomb of the Grand Vizier.

"We found him..."

Archaeologist opens tomb of Egyptian vizier, Carol La Valley, The Payson Roundup, Arizona, May 03, 2007.

A "digital dissection" using sophisticated CT scanning technology yesterday changed the way scientists viewed a 2,000-year-old mummy of an Egyptian child.

They now suspect that the youngster was a boy about 4 or 5 years old who was missing a right front tooth and was around 21/2 feet tall. He appeared to be developing normally and likely died of an acute cause, perhaps an infection.

Before the scan was conducted, experts at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine had thought the child was 8 or 9 years old and had an unusually large head, suggesting that a genetic condition might have contributed to his death...

The mummy dates to Dynasty XXX of the Early Ptolemaic period, from 380 to 250 B.C. It was found in a cemetery in Abydos, Egypt, with 11 others, including four children...

In addition to determining the sex and age of the child, the researchers hope to create a three-dimensional computer image of the head for exhibit, as well as study...

Using CT scanner, scientists gain new view of 2,000-year-old mummy, Anita Srikameswaran, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pennsylvania, USA, May 03, 2007.

cf. Scan of mummy shows rod in spine, AP via Charleston Daily Mail, West Virginia, USA, May 03, 2007.

cf. Scan of Mummified Child Done in Pa., CBS 8, California, USA, May 03, 2007.