Two Sphinxes existed on the Pyramids Plateau, according to a new study by Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa.

El Shammaa said the famed half-lion, half man statute was an Egyptian deity erected next to another Sphinx, which has since vanished without a trace.

This theory, however, is in contradiction to the general belief that a single colossal statue functioned as a guard to the pyramids.

El Shammaa said the idea of two Sphinxes is more in line with ancient Egyptian beliefs, which were mainly based on duality.

"The pyramid texts recovered at Saqqara, especially from the Wenis [Unas] Pyramid, contain descriptions of the ancient Egyptian conception of how the universe was created. Basically, this concept underlined the belief in duality," El Shammaa said.

"Whenever we have to deal with the solar cult, we should speak of one lion and one lioness facing each other, posing parallel to each other or sitting in a back-to-back position...

There may have been a second Sphinx, claims Egyptologist, ANI via Yahoo! News, India, August 31, 2007.

cf. There could have been two sphinxes, argues one researcher, Ahmed Maged, Daily Star Egypt, Egypt, August 31, 2007.

Not a new theory. See this post on a discussion thread relating to the above article on the HallOfMaat from 'rich'.

A plea goes out to rescue Qasr Ibrim, the sole in situ archaeological site remaining among Nubian monuments.

Isolated on a high hillock in the middle of Lake Nasser, the monumental complex of Qasr Ibrim displays a collection of archaeological remnants of Egypt's various historical epochs that once witnessed a unique civilisation.

Qasr Ibrim was once an eagle's nest over Lower Nubia but is now an island, or at times a peninsula, on the east bank of the artificial Lake Nasser which came into being after the building of the Aswan High Dam in the early 1960's. The site was intermittently inhabited from as early as the Middle Kingdom until the 1840's. It also functioned as a military stronghold and a destination of religious pilgrimage for various armies and religious denominations.

In the 1960s when Egypt decided to build the High Dam and called for the salvage operation of Nubian monuments, all temples were relocated to another, safer location except the monuments of Qasr Ibrim which was built on top of an 80-metre tall rock formation above the Nile's level, thus preventing its inundation by the flow of Lake Nasser after the completion of the dam...

Such remarkable preservation on site has recently been threatened by the high water levels of Lake Nasser associated with construction in Toshka.

Almost 60 per cent of the island has been inundated and water leaks into the temple most of the time. Water has also reached the foundation of the cathedral which has led to several cracks on its walls. Blocks of the podium located on the edge of the Nile have been dismantled which may lead to an eventual total collapse. The fortification walls have indeed collapsed, and mud-brick buildings near the new water line have fallen as well, either from the effect of direct water or from percolation. The most important of these are a 25th Dynasty temple, from which a wall painting has already collapsed and another is now in danger of disappearing...

Sending out an SOS, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 860, August 30 - September 05, 2007.

Any two lists of the top 10 archaeological discoveries in Egypt would be different in only one or two items. Atlantic Productions is making a film for the Discovery Channel based on just such a list, and asked me to be its host and introduce these finds to the public. I felt honoured that two of the discoveries included on the list were my own. It was my first time working with this fantastic team, and I really enjoyed it. They did their homework, and Ben, the director, was very quick and smart.

We spent the entire first day of filming at Giza, beginning with an interview in front of the Great Pyramid. We looked at two discoveries on the plateau. The first was the boat of King Khufu which was found by Kamel El-Mallakh in May of 1954. The discovery was made by accident after King Faisal of Saudi Arabia visited the site, and asked for the south side of the Great Pyramid to be cleaned. The Antiquities Department began their work under the direction of El-Mallakh, an architect who worked at Giza on the conservation and restoration of the site. He appointed "Reis" Garas Yani as overseer of the workmen. One day, El-Mallakh was having lunch with our famous writer Anis Mansour at the Excelsior restaurant in downtown Cairo. The phone rang, and the waiter came to tell El-Mallakh. On the other end was Reis Garas, who told him that a boat had been found buried next to the pyramid... Every excavator makes mistakes, and El-Mallakh opened a hole not only in the first pit but also in the second. A few years ago, we decided to see what we could do about the second pit, which is still sealed, and found that insects were running all over the boat because of the hole El-Mallakh made...

Dig days: Egypt's top 10 archaeological discoveries: Khufu's boat, Zahi Hawass, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 860, August 30 - September 05, 2007.

Last year I managed to pick up a copy of Nancy Jenkins' published by Thames & Hudson second hand at an Oxfam bookshop. It's one of the many on my pile 'to be read'.

University of Advancing Technology (UAT) instructor and senior web developer Joe McCormack has completed work on a web-based application that translates English words into cuneiform script from the Assyrian, Babylonian, Sumerian and the hieroglyphic script of Egyptian. The tool may be seen at his website, virtualsecrets.com.

The translator works by converting cuneiform and hieroglyphs, both used in the earliest forms of writing, into English words. For example, typing "I am a father" into the Ancient Egyptian translator yields hieroglyphs that roughly translate to "I am" and "father." The translator has been featured on several museum websites around the world and websites specializing in resources for the ancient world.

McCormack, a UAT web developer by trade, worked more than 1,000 hours on researching the cuneiform and hieroglyphic and building the tool and its accompanying website. Inspiration for the project stemmed from his fascination with the science fiction television series "Stargate SG-1," which featured ancient Egyptian mythology and symbols as plot points. These caught McCormack's eye and lead to his research...

I note that you don't get any transliteration in either , , , or Manuel de Codage (MdC) form. Nor do you get the Gardiner codes for each hieroglyph returned. I've always been a fan of Chris Busch's Hieropreter for Hieroglyphic translation.

And whilst we're at it Serge Rosmorduc has released a new version of JSesh a free Hieroglyphic Editor.

UAT Instructor Creates Cuneiform and Hieroglyphic Translator, UAT via MarketWire, USA, August 23, 2007.

Lanny Bell, an archaeologist from Brown University, will examine Egyptian beliefs in a free lecture titled “Mummies, Magic and Medicine: An Introduction to Ancient Egyptian Funerary Beliefs and Practices” at 7 p.m., Sept. 18 [2007], in Life Sciences Centre room A-191 on ASU’s Tempe campus.

“An examination of the way the ancient Egyptians faced the all-too-familiar problem of death reveals that rather than being obsessed with death, they were obsessed with life,” Bell says. “They enjoyed their earthly existence and at the same time looked forward to an eternal existence based on the idea that death was the portal to rebirth into a new kind of life.”

Bell’s lecture will range from the Old Kingdom (2675-2175 BCE) through the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE)...

Lecture looks at Egyptian views on death, Judith Smith, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA, August 29, 2007.

Tickets to one of the most anticipated exhibitions of the year, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," are available for public purchase on Wednesday, 12 September. More than 180,000 tickets already have been reserved for the exhibition, which will be on display at London's newest state-of-the-art venue, The O2, 15 November to 30 August 2008.

Organised by National Geographic, Arts and Exhibitions International and AEG Exhibitions, with cooperation from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, and sponsored by Credit Suisse, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" will be the first exhibition to take place in The O2's 6500m squared exhibition centre, The O2 Bubble...

The exhibition includes more than 130 treasures, all of which are 3,000 to 3,500 years old. These include artefacts found in the tomb of the celebrated pharaoh as well as several of his relatives and 18th Dynasty (1555 B.C. to 1305 B.C.) contemporaries. Major objects on display from Tutankhamun's tomb will include his royal diadem - the gold crown discovered encircling the head of his mummified body that he likely wore as king - and one of the gold and precious stone inlaid canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs.

Beginning next week, eager visitors who are O2 phone customers will have the chance to purchase exhibition tickets in advance...

Tickets for 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' on Sale 12 September, PRNewswire via EARTHtimes.org, August 27, 2007.

More than 190,000 tickets have been reserved for a blockbuster exhibition on the treasures of Tutankhamun.

Twelve weeks before the show opens at the O2, the advance interest has proved even bigger than during its four city tour of the United States.

Most reservations have been made by tour companies but individual members of the public have registered for around 38,000 tickets.

The box office will go live on 12 September — the day before the other autumn blockbuster, the Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of China, opens at the British Museum. That show has sold 77,000 tickets to members of the public so far.

Bryan Harris, the Tutankhamun show's head of marketing, said the London audience was expected to top the 1.2 million people who will have seen it in Philadelphia when it closes there next month...

Treasures of the boy king return, Louise Jury, This is London, UK, August 29, 2007.

How they died is still a mystery.

But medical scans performed last week clearly show how the two ancient Egyptian mummies on display at Davenport’s Putnam Museum were preserved.

Puncture holes, incisions and rolled-up linens seen inside the two bodies — now verified as that of a man and a woman — offer important clues about the mummification process used thousands of years ago, museum curator Eunice Schlichting said Tuesday.

Now, the investigation continues.

The museum is seeking an Egyptologist or cultural anthropologist to further study the CT ... scans of the mummies that were donated last week by Genesis Medical Centre...

CT scans show how mummies were preserved, Kay Luna, Quad-City Times, Iowa, USA, August 29, 2007.

Previously:

Putnam Mummies' exodus to Genesis goes well, August 24, 2007.

Iowa museum mummies to undergo CT scans, August 20, 2007.

Buddies can find out more about their ‘mummies’ at a special event with more than a touch of Eastern promise.

Artefacts from ancient Egypt will go on show at a special hands-on exhibition in Paisley Museum.

And those who go along will get their just ‘desserts’ at the display which features the contents of an archaeologist’s trunk.

Items on show will include ornaments, sacred objects and household utensils from the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh as well as Paisley Museum’s own collection.

The exhibition opens at the Museum in the High Street on Thursday, September 6 [2007], before touring Renfrewshire communities in the New Year.

Touch of Egypt at museum, The Paisley Daily Express, Scotland, UK, August 29, 2007.

"Tourism in Egypt is witnessing remarkable boom with an increase of number of tourists by 13 percent in the year 2006/2007 compared to the past year," said Minister of Tourism Zohair Garana on Monday in his speech to the first session of the second day of a forum of Egyptian expatriates.

Garana noted that around 9.7 million tourists visited Egypt during the said period compared to 8.6 million in 2005/2006.

"Also, tourist nights increased to reach 92.3 million at total revenues of $8.2 billion in the said period compared to 85.1 million nights at revenue of $7.2 billion in the past year," he added.

Garana: Remarkable Boom in tourists visiting = Egypt, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 28, 2007.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni agreed to establish an exhibition for the Egyptian monuments in the French Valentine city under the name "Pharaonics". The exhibition will move from Bahrain to France after being in el-Manama for 6 months.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the exhibition will be opened in the French City mid October and will roam 6 European Countries. He added that the exhibition will remain for about two years and will include 112 monuments.

He also said that they agreed with the French side to allocate $200 million for the exhibition insurance against any terror actions or natural disasters, adding that the French side will pay the fees of moving the exhibition from Bahrain to Valentine.

Egyptian exhibition in 7 EU Countries, Egypt State Information Service, Egypt, August 17, 2007.

Previously:

Treasures of ancient Egypt draw 15,000, July 18, 2007.

National Geographic News reported last month that an international team of archaeologists had discovered the oldest known art in Egypt. The country is, of course, known for its pyramids and mummies, but the art in question is 10,000 years older than the dawn of Egyptian civilization.

The art consists of petroglyphs, or engravings on stone, estimated to be 15,000 years old. Its style is closer to the art of Palaeolithic France than to that of Pharaonic Egypt.

The National Geographic report quoted Dirk Huyge, a curator at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels, Belgium, as saying, "It is not at all an exaggeration to call it 'Lascaux on the Nile,'" referring to the most famous French cave art site.

Huyge is not suggesting any direct connection between Palaeolithic France and Egypt. Instead, he said the similarities in the art likely occurred because the artists shared a common way of life...

Ancient lifestyle may link art found in Egypt, Europe, Bradley T. Lepper, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio, USA, August 28, 2007.

Previously:

Egypt's Oldest Known Art Identified, Is 15,000 Years Old, July 13, 2007.

Lascaux on the Nile, June 15, 2007.

A 3000-year-old Egyptian mummy is now on show as part of Perth Museum and Art Gallery’s new ‘Painted Ladies’ exhibition. The exhibition opened earlier than scheduled, and the delicate process of installing the mummy in the gallery was completed last week.

Believed to be either an Egyptian princess or priestess, the mummy has been a feature of the museum’s collections since her arrival in 1935 from Alloa Museum. Perthshire residents will no doubt have their own memories of visiting the mummy when she was on permanent display in the museum. In an attempt to preserve her condition as much as possible, full exhibition of the mummy in the galleries has been limited in recent years. This latest exhibition means that a whole new generation of visitors can get to know one of Perth’s oldest residents...

The Painted Ladies exhibition runs until October 25 [2007]...

Mummy at the museum, The Perthshire Advertiser, Scotland, UK, August 21, 2007.

A French team has discovered in western Egypt a graveyard dating back to the Ptolemaic era, antiquity officials said yesterday. Most of the 25 tombs, found in the el-Kharga Oasis, New Valley Governorate, consist of a chamber 2 metres square and 1.45 metres high, they added. Six gold-painted mummies were also unearthed in good condition.

Papyri, gold masks, funerary beds and bronze shaving implements were also found as well as statues of the four children of the god Horus.

Golden mummies found in el-Kharga, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, August 28, 2007.

People everywhere are eagerly anticipating the arrival of this new cultural destination. The museum is located over 480,000 square metres, 2.5 kilometres away from the legendary Pyramids of Giza, of which the plateau is included in the UNESCO list of cultural heritage sites. The GEM is completely integrated with the nearby archaeological area, and is a synergy that facilitates the conservation not only of the pieces exposed in the museum, but also the monuments of the Giza plateau is offered. The budget for constructing and operating the GEM is estimated at US$550 million. The funding for this project is provided mainly by the Egyptian Government, plus grants from other countries within the framework of developmental cooperation agreements and protocols. The fund is also made up of contributions and technical assistance provided from international organisations and financial agencies, as well as individual and group donations and subscriptions. Khalifa Hamed, the head of the antiquities unit at the Egyptian Museum in el-Tahrir Square, downtown Cairo, told The Gazette the GEM would be constructed as a complex consisting of a display of 100,000 artefacts in an 'archaeological park' of ancient Egyptian history. The visitors will be drawn into the story of ancient Egypt from the moment they enter. In the atrium, the visitor will marvel at the monumental statue of Ramses II and the grand staircase with statues of the pharaohs, including Khufu's (2589-2566 BC) who built the Great Pyramid. On the third floor will be the gallery of Tutankhamen, which will be a museum within a museum. Dramatic lighting will accent the golden treasures of the tomb, which will be augmented by layers of information using a variety of media. The gallery will display 3,500 pieces of the young King Tut. Spaces for visitors' relaxation will focus on objects or groups of objects for contemplation. The museum will compromise five thematic areas chronologically displayed: the Land of Egypt, Kingship and State, Man Society and Work, Religion and Culture, and Scribes and Knowledge.

Museum as archaeological park, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, August 28, 2007.

Egypt has accused Belgian diplomats of driving four-wheel-drive cars over a fossilized whale in a protected desert area, but the Belgian Embassy on Monday denied the charge.

An Egyptian security source said that two diplomatic vehicles "destroyed a whale fossil" by driving over it. He said the drivers had failed to stop when asked.

The license plates were traced to the Belgian Embassy, where spokesman Ivan Feyz denied any done damage...

The security source said the cars drove into the protected area of Wadi Hitan (Whale Valley) as recently as last week, causing potentially millions of dollars in damage, but the Belgian Embassy insisted the incident happened in July...

Egypt accuses Belgians of damaging fossil, The Lebanon Daily Star, Lebanon, August 28, 2007.

The city has spent millions over the past decade restoring its infrastructure. Although it has always attracted Egyptians on summer holidays, it still accounts for only a small fraction of Egypt's expanding foreign tourist market.

Just seven or eight years ago, a walk down the Corniche, or sea front, was marred by falling buildings, said Fathi Nour, chairman of the Egyptian Hotel Association.

The new international airport will be able to handle 1.5 million passengers a year and 30 flights a day when finished in 2009, said Said Khallaf, the airport's general manager.

Now the city attracts about half a million passengers a year and uses an old military base for international flights...

Egypt's Alexandria seeks second revival, Will Rasmussen, Reuters via The Boston Herald, Massachusetts, USA, August 27, 2007.

There are many different ways of exploring this extraordinary river. For example, for a three-point Nile trip, one could fly to Khartoum, have a week's stopover in Ethiopia, then travel north (downstream) overland through Sudan and Egypt, and fly home from Cairo...

Egypt certainly provides the Nile images that most people expect: a wide and languid river dotted with the sails of feluccas and lined with ancient monuments, with sand-dunes beyond. And that is indeed the scene from the terrace of Aswan's Old Cataract Hotel ..., a monument to the grand old days of travel, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. Some grandeur survives...

In Luxor, the ancient city of Thebes, you're spoilt for choice in terms of ancient monuments. On the east bank of the Nile stand two of Egypt's finest temples — Luxor and Karnak — while across the river, under the rocky, orange Nile Escarpment is the stunning temple of Queen Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs.

A stiff walk over the escarpment, or a bus-ride round, takes you to the Valley of the Kings...

The Complete Guide To: Nile journeys, David Else, The Independent, UK, August 25, 2007.

Explore the more mysterious sides of science this Halloween when Discovery Science Centre presents Spooky Science — Mummies!

From Oct. 12 to Nov. 4, 2007, decode hieroglyphs, build your knowledge of pyramids and get the gruesome, gory facts behind the mummification process.

Did you know that mummies are buried all around the world? In addition to Egypt, mummification was a popular burial method in South America. Explore the cultural differences between the processes of making a mummy in this special exhibition.

Discovery Science Centre's annual Spooky Science exhibition is a SPOOKtacular good time! Participate in fun science experiments, enjoy trick-or-treat goodie bags and explore a spooky maze. Get wrapped up in science this Halloween!

Located at 2500 N. Main St. in Santa Ana, California, Taco Bell Discovery Science Centre is Orange County's leading destination for hands-on science fun. Guests can explore more than 100 hands-on science exhibits in themed areas: Discovery Stadium, Techno Arts, Air & Space, Perception, Dynamic Earth, Quake Zone, KidStation, the Digital Lab and Dino Quest...

Unwrap mummy mysteries this Halloween at Discovery Science Centre, Julie Smith, Discovery Science Centre, California, USA, August 20, 2007.

Yet another public controversy has caught the Ministry of Culture, though this time it does not involve the person of Minister Farouk Hosni — one of the most controversial figures in the cabinet over his 20-year tenure. Frequently, during this time, Hosni was locked in conflict with National Democratic Party and other politicians over what were seen as excessively liberal positions he held.

This time the furore involves, rather, two of his aides: the head of the Nubian Antiquities Salvage Fund Hussein Ahmed Hussein; and Ayman Abdel-Moneim, who is both director-general of the Cultural Development Fund and general supervisor of the Historic Cairo Development Project. Both were arrested on charges of bribery: Hussein was caught red-handed with an LE10,000 bribe from a contractor vying for the Nubian Museum restoration project; Abdel-Moneim was accused of amassing possessions from contractors working in Ministry of Culture restoration projects. Early investigations have revealed that both defendants unlawfully received a range of gifts from luxuriously furnished apartments in Cairo's fashionable districts and plots of land to rugs and meals of fish. Together with three contractors involved in the case, they will be in detention for 15 days pending the results of further investigation. The allegation that expenses of contractors working on archaeological sites were being disbursed in return for bribes taken by some of the ministry's top officials were first made in 2006, when the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) started on the case. As a result of investigations made since, all five defendants may face trial at the formidable Supreme State Security Court...

Mixed signals, Nevine El-Aref, Al-Ahram, Egypt, Issue No. 858, August 16 - 22, 2007.

From July 29th until August 4th, 2007, I was in Japan. The reason for my visit was the opening of an exhibit at Waseda University, which is celebrating both its 125th anniversary and 40 years of archaeological exploration in Egypt. The exhibit showcases objects from Waseda's excavations at Dashur, Saqqara, and Abusir. Organized by Dr. Sakuji Yoshimura, it will tour 10 cities in Japan.

I attended the opening ceremony with our active ambassador, Hesham Badr, as well Dr. Yoshimura and the president of Waseda University. Each one of us gave a speech before we joined together in cutting the ribbon. After the ceremony, there was a reception...

A Visit to Japan, Zahi Hawass, The Plateau, Guardian's Egypt, August 17, 2007.

O2 customers will get the chance to act like kings for the day with priority access to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition at The O2.

After a 35 year break, Tutankhamun is finally returning to London on 15th November for 9 months, with the initial week of the exhibition (15th November — 21st November [2007]) only open to O2 customers and their guests who will be the first to marvel at the ancient treasures housed in the cultural hub of The O2, The O2 bubble.

In a further move to treat its customers like royalty, O2 has also arranged for its customers to be able to exclusively purchase tickets for The O2's Tutankhamun exhibition in a pre-sale period from 29th August-11th September, before the public sale commences on 12th September. Customers have to text TUT to 2020 to receive.

their unique password for that exclusive week.

O2 customers interested in Tutankhamun will also be able visit the blueroom online and O2 Active to interact with treasure hunt games, a discussion area and a hieroglyphics generator.

The last time Tutankhamun's treasures visited London was at The British Museum in 1972 with an attendance of over 1.7 million visitors, setting a world record...

O2 customers to get first look at King Tut exhibition, Amy-Mae Elliott, Yahoo! News, UK, August 24, 2007.

Museums in Las Cruces have had a record number of visitors this summer. Despite the thermometer topping out at more than 100 degrees on some days, many people ventured out of their homes to see exhibits such as "Ansel Adams, the Man Who Captured the Earth's Beauty" at the Museum of Art, at 491 N. Main St...

[Will Ticknor] said both the King Tut and Ansel Adams exhibits helped lure people into the museums...

Museums experience record attendance, Jenn Kistler, Las Cruces Sun-News, New Mexico, USA, August 24, 2007.