• malcolmj

    Preserving King Tut’s Guts: The Canopic Shrine and Jars Introduced

    As we described in our recent handy guide to how to make a mummy, the ancient Egyptians went to great and grizzly lengths to ensure that every last bit of a body was efficiently preserved. The internal organs had to be removed in order to effectively dry out a corpse. They would then be individually wrapped and preserved separately in canopic vessels. King Tuts guts in keeping with the generally lavish and wondrous spirit of his mummification and burial were given extra-special treatment, as we discover in the first instalment of the new four part video series, Tuts Treasures. Shot…

  • images

    Sandro Vannini’s Photography – Tomb of Seti I (KV17): The Burial Chamber

    Seti I’s reign over Egypt is thought to have lasted between 13 to 20 years, and during this time he opened the kingdom up to trade with foreign nations and committed to the development of construction projects. This led to stability which united the country after the fragile rule of the previous Amarna kings. The sheer number and scale of building projects thatSeti I oversaw during his reign would go on to be one of the greatest artistic periods in Egyptian history. One of Seti I’s major accomplishment of the era was the completion of the Great Temple of Abydos,…

  • egypt

    Preview – King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs Hits Toronto

    Tut has returned to Toronto. After 30 years the boy king’s treasures are back in the Canadian city, with a new show set to open this Tuesday, at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It’s the first time the king’s been in town since 1979.  In that year Egyptomania was at its height, and Steve Martin was doing his King Tut dance and all. Before the media preview began today, the organizers tried to re-create a little bit of that 1970’s magic. A pair of dancers from the group ‘For the Funk of it’ performed a tutting dance routine in front…

  • Video

    Search for the Tomb of Cleopatra (Featuring Dr. Kathleen Martinez)

    Description Dr Kathleen Martinez, a young archaeologist from the Dominican Republic, has been excavating a site near Alexandria in the search for the tomb of Cleopatra. After being given permission to conduct a dig at the site for 2 months, Dr Martinez’s team have discovered two chambers which has won them the right to continue the dig into the next season. Describing the tomb that was discovered at Taposiris Magna, Dr Martinez remains confident that she will uncover the tomb of Cleopatra and Marc Anthony. Click here to read the accompanying blogpost for this video, and watch Dr Zahi Hawass’…

  • meral-crifasi

    Spotting Synagogues Amongst the Minarets: A Tour of Jewish Istanbul

    I am planning a week-long trip to Istanbul with my husband and two young boys for Christmas holidays and the New Year. The main focus of the holiday will be visiting my family who live in Istanbul and catching up with friends. Each time we are back home my French husband gets restless in a family environment with too much Turkish language around him that he understands very little of, and wants to be the sightseeing tourist wondering the streets. He would rather be watching a belly dancing show in Galata Tower or relaxing in a TurkishBath – typical tourist…

  • sean-williams

    Prehistoric Super Crocodiles, ‘SuperCrocs’, Found in Sahara

    A top paleontologist has discovered the remains of five ancient crocodile species in the Sahara desert. Paul Sereno, National Geographic’s resident expert in the field, has dubbed the suite of SuperCrocs after the characteristics they share with other modern animals. The group, found on a windswept stretch of rock and dunes, are proof of an obscure era when the crocs roamed the southern land mass of Gondwana, some 100 million years ago. The most spectacular of the five is SuperCroc itself, weighing in at a whopping 8 tons, and measuring over 40 feet. Four of the five had ‘upright’ legs…

  • malcolmj

    How did King Tut die? Cause of Death Established

    Hes the most famous figure in ancient Egyptian history, but theres still plenty of mystery surrounding King Tut. Who better to clear up a few of them for us than Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities? In part one of King Tut Revealed a four part video interview exclusive by Sandro Vannini Dr Hawass broaches the tricky and controversial subject of how the Boy King, whose tomb KV62 was famously discovered in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922, met his premature end in 1323 BC at just 19 years of…

  • site

    Taposiris Magna

    Attribution: Troels Myrup Abousir Egypt Key Dates The town was inhabited during the Predynastic era. Napoleon’s scholars recorded the town’s monuments in 1801. Key People Cleopatra, the famous queen of Egypt whose tomb is rumoured to be housed in Taposiris. Ptolemy II, who built a prominent tower at the site. Cleopatra Ptolemy II Philadelphus The ancient town and temple of Taposiris Magna is located on the banks of Lake Mariut, just west of Alexandria. In modern times the town was swallowed up by the metropolitan area of the city, and is now officially within the Alexandrian suburb of Abousir. In…

  • lyn

    10 Ways to Get Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site

    The UNESCO World Heritage List is possibly the best known list, of anything, anywhere on Earth. One of UNESCO’s core projects, it is intended to identify and safeguard the world’s natural and cultural treasures. Listing by UNESCO is the ambition of many sites, large and small, around the world because it not only brings prestige and tourist dollars, but it also brings with it the clout of UNESCO and and expertise in the preservation and conservation of sites. Jethro Lennox is the publishing manager responsible for UNESCO‘s new The World’s Heritage: A Complete Guide to the Most Extraordinary Places, which features every UNESCO World Heritage…

  • bija-knowles

    Vampires of Volterra: The Etruscan Roots of The Twilight Saga

    This week the film The Twilight Saga: New Moonis being released, fuelling vampire mania around the world. While teenagers go completely nuts over the film’s hunky vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) one wrote ‘bite me’ on her face as she queued with 5,000 others to see him in London last week other die-hard fans of the Twilight books, written by Stephenie Meyers, are also descending on the small hill-top town of Volterra, in Tuscany, where some of the action of the film is set (even though filming actually took place in Montepulciano, 70 miles away). As a result, hordes of teenagers…