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    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…

  • brian-dolan

    Controversy Present and Absent: Dimitrios Pandermalis Introduces the New Acropolis Museum

    Thirty years in the making, the 130 million euro New Acropolis Museum is a stunning, if controversial, addition to Athen’s famous architectural landscape and at the same time a provocative statement of intent by the Greek people. In a fascinating talk in Dublin last night, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the new museum took an enthralled audience on a tour of the history, architecture and intentions of the spectacular building. The talk, entitled ‘Collections Present and Absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens‘ was hosted by the National Museum of Ireland, organised by the Irish Museums Association and was attended…

  • brian-dolan

    Brian Dolan’s blog

    Thirty years in the making, the 130 million euro New Acropolis Museum is a stunning, if controversial, addition to Athen’s famous architectural landscape and at the same time a provocative statement of intent by the Greek people. In a fascinating talk in Dublin last night, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the new museum took an enthralled audience on a tour of the history, architecture and intentions of the spectacular building.

  • sean-williams

    Incas ‘Cut off Heads as Trophies’

    Experts working at an ancient Inca archaeological site claim three skulls discovered in a ceremonial vessel prove the civilisation cut off the heads of their enemies. The skulls were found by a Peruvian team digging at the ancient ceremonial centre of Qowicarana Ridge, just north of Cuzco. Now the team hopes to find the remains of the trio’s bodies, to prove whether they were actually decapitated – either during or after battle. Washington Camacho, director of Sacsayhuaman Archaeological Park, says the heads most likely belong to rival chiefs (curacas) or religious leaders of enemy tribes. The heads would have been…

  • Ann

    Looted Iraqi Treasures? Covered up report reads Britain must return Schoyen Incantation Bowls

    An archaeological mystery may have come to an end, after an enquiry into the origin of 654 Aramaic incantation bowls from the Schyen Collection was finally made public. The report – recently placed in the House of Lords Library – states that bowls currently finding themselves in Britain were likely to have illegally been looted after the Gulf War and should be returned to Iraq. Commissioned by the University College in London in 2005, the results of the enquiry are that the bowls were stolen from the historical site of Babylon some time after the 1991 Gulf war, and that…

  • sean-williams

    Dam Floods Threaten Radar-Revealed Lost Syrian City

    An ancient Mesopotamian city discovered recently in Syria could be lost forever, experts fear. The circular city, dating back 4,500 years in the enclave of Tall Qabr, was found using cutting edge geo-lasertechnology. Its location along the Euphrates River means it may hold the key to boundaries between the Mari Kingdom and its southern Babylonian neighbours, in modern Iraq. Yet the city may be lost forever, thanks to flooding from a modern dam. Its Spanish discoverers, from the universities of Coruna and Vigo, have hastily prepared a report for UNESCO in the hope that it can send scores of archaeologists…

  • sean-williams

    Cambyses the Persian’s Lost Army found in Egyptian Desert

    A pair of Italian brothers believe they have at last discovered the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II in the Egyptian desert, some 2,500 years after they are said to have been swallowed up by a vicious sandstorm. The 50,000-strong army was engulfed as it crossed the Great Sand Sea towards Siwa Oasis, to destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun. Archaeologists have searched for the legendary lost men for centuries – yet Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni claim that hundreds of human bones and bronze weapons just outside the oasis are the remains of Cambyses’ fateful crew. Greek…

  • Ann

    The Egyptian people have the right to see the real Rosetta Stone

    Egypt threathening to severe ties with the Louvre museum led to five looted Pharaonic steles returning to Egypt and maybe even toTetiki’stomb of which they were illegally removed. But the directory general of the SCA, Dr. Zahi Hawass, is on a quest that he hopes will lead to thehigh-profile “icons of the Egyptian identity” returning to the Cairo Museum. What’s on the wishlist? First and foremore the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum and the Nefertiti Bust from the Neues. But also a statue of Hemiunu, the bust of Anchhaf, the mask of Ka-Nefer-Neferand the painted Zodiac blasted outof theceiling…

  • sean-williams

    The Petrie Museum’s Amelia Edwards – The Greatest Woman in Egyptology

    There have been many great women in the times and study of Ancient Egypt – Hatshepsut and Nefertiti are two great examples. Yet in the era of discovery; the time in which great explorers pioneered the excavation of Egypt’s greatest treasures, one woman sticks out louder than Liberace in a dole queue. Cue Amelia Edwards, a Victorian writer and adventurer who bucked the conservative traditions of her time to help found one of London‘s greatest museums. We meet Petrie Museum curator Stephen Quirke at 10am on a bleak British morning, drizzling rain just about getting our umbrellas out in the…