Description Zahi Hawass escorts President Barack Obama on his historic visit to the pyramids of Giza. On his recent visit to Egypt, President Barack Obama toured the pyramids of Giza, escorted by Zahi Hawass. View footage of the tour, and hear Dr. Hawass’ reaction to this historic event! Related Heritage Experts Zahi Hawass Credits camera – Maggie Bryson, camera & editing – Niccolo Piazza, music – Stephen Benham Transcription It’s a very interesting visit, I think, he’s a wonderful man, he makes jokes all the time. We went down inside the tomb of Kar. His hat was hit in the…
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Lord Elgin isn’t the only Brit taking the blame for removing some of ancient Greece’s greatest marble treasures – and the Parthenon is far from the only place raided by a zealous Brit in a bid to bring the ancient world to the smoggy streets of London. During an extensive dig carried out between 1857-59, Newton and his merry band of hacks travelled to the Ottoman – now Turkish – peninsula of Datca, where they began excavating the famous merchant city of Knidos – a picturesque Monte Carlo of the ancient Greek world, famous for its wealth, opulence and magnificent…
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One can’t ‘tour’ the Middle East and visit Egypt without having seen the pyramids.And if you happen to be the President of the United States of America, you get the VIPtreatement: Dr.Zahi Hawass as a guide for an exclusive guided visit in the pyramids and tombs. A comment by Kate Burgess on Dr.Zahi’s facebook profile reads: ‘President Obama was so lucky to have you as his guide.‘ Areversed world?;) Watch the video here on drhawass.com, or click play:
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The British Museum houses a suspiciously large stash of ancient relics, pillaged from around the world by British explorers back when there were no laws against that kind of thing. But the countries of origin of many of these treasures now want them back, and the repatriation of artefacts has become a hot potato between the UK and countries such as Egypt, Turkey and China. Image of the New Acropolis Museum by Skoobie99. The UKs argument had, in the past, been that the origin countries do not have appropriate venues to house and display the ancient artefacts. With two major…
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Queen Tiye was known primarily as the wife of Amenhotep III and the mother of Akhenaten. She was also the mother of Sitamun, who also eventually married Amenhotep III, as well as at least 4 other children. Amenhotep III thought highly of his wife, and Tiye was similarly devoted to her husband. Several statues and stelas depict the royal couple together, and in many of them Tiye is portrayed as being as tall as Amenhotep III. Her husband also devoted many shrines and temple, as well as an artificial lake, to her. Tiye was considered a chief, albeit unofficial, advisor…
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Ordinarily, Britain’s Got Talentdoesn’t have a lot in common with history, though I suppose there will be a footnote onSusan Boylein the ‘History of Reality TV’ when it’s finally published. Or in Simon Cowell‘s autobiography. But none of this matters toMary Beard, whose excellentTimes Online blog, It’s A Don’s Life, covers subjects that have everything and nothing do with history. Beard, aprofessor in classics at Cambridge and the classics editor ofThe Times Literary Supplement, this week confessed to watching the final of BGT, posting a blog under the header: ‘A classicist watches Britain’s Got Talent‘. The Times describes Beard as…
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Few people would ever have called Saddam Hussein a god; not even many of his most vehement supporters. But the vainglorious way in which he rebuilt many of Iraq’s most coveted ancient sites seems to suggest he saw himself as some sort of Babylonian deity along the lines of the Egyptian heretic king Akhenaten. However a great number of Saddam’s beloved monuments have fallen into the hands of the US Army since the war in 2003. How are the Americans looking after Saddam’s Mesopotamian masterpieces? And what modern uses are these sites, spearheaded by the vast Ziggurat of Ur, currently…
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On a recent trip to watch the sun rise from behind the spectacular structure of Stonehenge, I was lucky enough to meet Druid couple Kim and Andrea (right). It was a couple of days before the Easter Solstice, and the pair were preparing to protest against the lack of free access to what they see as a place of worship. Normally, the stones are only open during the visiting hours dictated by the National Trust. Visitors need to buy a ticket to get anywhere near the site; a ticket that forces them to walk the wrong way around the stones…
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24 Oct 51 – 96 Emperor Titus Flavius Domitian was a Roman Emperor who reigned from 81-96 AD. He was the last emperor of the Flavian Dynasty and the son of former emperor Vespasian (69-79). He inherited the throne form his brother Titus, who ruled the Roman Empire from 79-81 AD. Domitian was known primarily for his attempt to strengthen the economy by revaluing Roman coinage. He also expanded the border control of the Empire and sought to rebuild Rome. Domitian saw himself in the great tradition of Augustus, and he hoped to help inaugurate the empire into a new…
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Egypt hasn’t always been controlled from Cairo – in fact the city only took on its capital city mantle in 969 AD. The ancient Egyptian empire went through over a dozen capital cities in its history, the most notable being Memphis, Thebes, Amarna and Alexandria. But how did power shift between these bustling ancient hubs? And what was life like as a resident of an ancient Egyptian capital? A Divided Land Before the empire was united in 3118 BC, it consisted of two separate kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt consisted of the valley regions of the south, taking…