Tourists to Egypt are heading to the Red Sea in larger numbers than those wanting to see the ancient Pyramids. Red Sea resorts are the destinations for a majority of visitors to the Arab world's largest country, tourism officials say.

The chairman of the Egyptian Tourist Authority Amr el-Ezabi gave these facts in an interview with the local Gulf Times newspaper on Saturday.

El-Ezabi told the Gulf Times that in 2006 approximately 70 percent of the nine million tourists in Egypt went to resorts on the Red Sea, Sinai and even the Mediterranean Sea, leaving the ancient wonder to a backdrop on visits...

Red Sea Resorts Taking Over Tourism In Egypt, Joseph S. Mayton, All Headline News, USA, May 13, 2007.

Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said on 16/05/2007 that the fourth stage of a project on discovering the route of the Road of Rams at Luxor kicked off.

The Rams Road is an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes leading from the Luxor Temple to the Great Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak.

In statements to MENA, Hawass said that the third stage of the project led to the discovery of the 54th sphinx-like statue, as well as a quartz steal depicting Bakenkhonsu, the High Priest of Amun-Ra, King of the Gods...

4th stage of project on discovering route of Luxor's rams road kicks off, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, May 17, 2007.

The epic exploits of Alexander the Great have been memorialised in fiction, films and biographies. His military genius and colourful personality, not to mention his unexplained death and multiple burials, have long held fascination. There has been no end of speculation as to why his mortal remains were carried far and wide — from Babylon where he died in 323 BC at the age of 32 and where his mummified body lay in state for two years; to its transportation to Macedonia, when it was hijacked en route by his trusted general Ptolemy and taken to Memphis, the sprawling city on the banks of the Nile. The body was subsequently transported to Alexandria where Ptolemy had built a grand mausoleum, the Soma, for Alexander's remains.

Nicholas Saunders, British archaeologist, social anthropologist and the author of Alexander's Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conqueror, has endeavoured to unlock one of the mysteries of the ancient world — what happened to the body and where it was buried. He points out that the move from Memphis to Alexandria was "a pivotal moment in Egypt's 300-year transition from native Pharaonic grandeur to the advent of Roman rule", and points out that, despite a good deal of search and study, "we cannot be sure when it occurred or, in fact, who was responsible... The ancient writers are silent on exactly where Ptolemy finally buried Alexander and are vague about the funeral." In Chapter Four of his book, entitled "Who moved Alexander's Corpse", Saunders tries to untangle the thread of speculation...

Saunders, who studied archaeology and social anthropology in the United Kingdom and who has taught and written numerous books on these topics, offers in Alexander's Tomb the epic tale of the ongoing quest to unlock this great mystery of the ancient world. He is less interested in discovering the site of the tomb than in searching for its traces in the world, tracking its influence on history, and charting the lives and times of the various characters and personalities who have been associated with it for 2,000 years. This is an important book, well written, and fascinating in its content...

, Nicholas J. Saunders, Basic Books Inc., 2006, pp. 290.

Alexander's lost tomb, Jill Kamil, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 845, May 17 - 23, 2007.

The facial trauma found on a certain mummy known as the "young lady", one of three discovered in the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35) in the Valley of the Kings, was used by Joann Fletcher as the main evidence for the damage being caused by malice and perpetrated post-mortem, in revenge against Queen Nefertiti. This conclusion does not make any sense, because anyone who wanted to take revenge on the mummy of Nefertiti could damage the entire mummy rather than make this small cut on the face. However, there is new evidence from the CT scan performed on the mummy to suggest that the trauma to the left cheek of the young lady's face was almost certainly done post-mortem, occurring before the embalming process.

The evidence cited for the post-mortem trauma was: first that the bone, skin, and muscle fragments were pushed inwards, down into the wound and not outwards (as would happen if the mask had been ripped off the face). Ashraf Selim, professor of radiology in the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, says it would be impossible to push the dry, embalmed tissues down and have them maintain their integrity without being broken off, suggesting that this happened before the body was embalmed. Second, the wound was cleaned and there were no loose bone or flesh fragments within the cavity, as one would expect if the wound occurred after embalming. Third, there were bony fragments deep within the nasal cavity beneath the layer of resin, implying that the fracture had happened before embalming. Fourth, the violence of the wound made it seem unlikely that it was committed by the embalmers. Paul Gustorer, another radiologist, suggested that this trauma was very similar to a wound that he had seen on a patient who had been kicked in the face by a horse...

The CT scan confirmed that the mummy known as the "young lady" was a female and not a male as previously suggested [in some DNA test results released by Dr. Hawass. Ref. More 'Daddy' than 'Mummy', CBC, Canada, January 13, 2004]. Fletcher also concluded that the young lady was 30 years old. The CT scan concluded that the mummy was actually between 25 and 35 years of age. The last two points of evidence are similar, but all the other evidence suggests that this mummy cannot be Queen Nefertiti. In this respect, we must close this subject and begin to make further studies to identify our "young lady".

, Joann Fletcher, Hodder & Stoughton, 2004, pp. 350.

Dig Days: Nefertiti II, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 845, May 17 - 23, 2007.

Previously:

Dig Days: Nefertiti, May 04, 2007.

What was it like to walk round the Colosseum when the Roman Empire was at its height" How would the experience have differed from that of a tourist today".

Our understanding of what life was like in bygone eras could be boosted, thanks to a new initiative aiming to depict more accurately and realistically how heritage sites may have looked in their heyday.

Computer scientists and cultural heritage researchers are assessing whether today's increasingly sophisticated 3-d computer technology can be combined with the most recent historical evidence to produce significantly improved visual reconstructions of churches, palaces and other ancient sites.

This could help historians, students and museum visitors gain a much better feel of how such sites were perceived by the people who used them in the past and what it was actually like to be there. The project is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The work is being carried out by researchers from Warwick Manufacturing Group and the new Warwick Digital Laboratory, University of Warwick...

Walk like an Egyptian — or a Roman — experience what the past really looked like, Natasha Richardson, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council via EurekAlert, UK, May 15, 2007.

Walk like an Egyptian — or a Roman — experience what the past really looked like, Natasha Richardson, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK, May 15, 2007.

Short courses on the ancient Egyptians, rocks and how to write stories are taking place in Coventry as part of Adult Learners' Week.

A week of events starts in the city on Saturday in a campaign to get grown-ups back to the classroom.

Highlights include a session on Egyptology at 4pm on Thursday, May 24 [2007] at Coventry Central Library in Smithford Way, city centre, when people will have chance to learn about pyramids and mummies...

Invitation back to the classroom, Coventry Evening Telegraph, UK, May 15, 2007.