• prad

    The Sims 3: World Adventures – Mummies in Egypt!

    Being a bit of a gaming geek, I’ll admit I was a tad bit excited to finally get my hands on the first expansion pack for The Sims 3 – World Adventures! As I’ve written before, this new game features forays into France, China and, my personal favourite – Egypt. Having played about in Heritage Key’s own fantastic virtual world experience, King Tut Virtual, I was looking forward to seeing how the new release from Electronic Arts would fare up. If you’re not familiar with The Sims games, then I’ll give you a quick run down. You play a character…

  • sean-williams

    Zahi Hawass on the SCA’s Projects at Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser

    might be one of Egypt’s oldest archaeological sites, but it’s certainly one of the hottest right now. And the omnipresent Zahi Hawass has been enlightening fans on the latest breakthroughs and theories circulating the ancient necropolis. The first of these centres on the giant Step Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt’s first pyramid. Eleven burial shafts have been excavated, homes to each of the Old Kingdom pharaoh’s daughters. As such it was the only Old Kingdom pyramid built for the king’s family. Yet there’s another shaft, soon to be studied, which Dr Hawass (coming to London soon!) feels may be the final…

  • sean-williams

    Dr Hawass: Climate Change is Threatening Egypt’s Landmarks

    With the UN’s Climate Change summit taking place in Copenhagen next month, it seems everyone’s minds are adjusted to the environment. Zahi Hawass is no different. The sands of time and weather pose a serious threat to many of his famous Egyptian landmarks, and the antiquities chief has set up several projects to combat the forces of nature on some of man’s greatest achievements. Though the rising tides of the Nile have been threatening Egypt’s monuments for millennia, the 20th and 21st centuries have no doubt posed their biggest problems. Man has hardly played a positive role in this: take…

  • 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…

  • site

    Tell el-Borg

    Sinai Desert Egypt Located in the North Sinai desert, just east of the Suez Canal, this site contains two ancient Egyptian fortresses. One of them dates to the Amarna Period (18th dynasty) and was used continuously throughout this time-frame. This fort was 120 meters east-west by 80 meters north-south. It contained a dry-moat that may not have been completed. Its purpose would have been to serve as a barrier to attackers trying to destroy the fort. There would have been more than 250 men serving in its garrison, including a chariot unit. Wine and other supplies were sent by the…

  • sean-williams

    Taking photos in the Valley of the Kings allowed? Stopping outside photography ‘Will be Charged’

    It’s fair enough not to be allowed to snap away inside the tombs of the Valley of the Kings (unless you’re Sandro Vannini , see why here). Flash photography – and that’s what you’ll need – can have a damaging effect on the delicate tomb paintings, some of which are around 4,000 years old. But jobsworth Egyptian officials denying you a snapshot outside the tombs? According to Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, that’s not on. The SCA boss has come out this week to smash claims his men are forbidding photography outside some of Egypt’s biggest attractions including the pyramids,…

  • owenjarus

    Where can you find King Tut Objects That are not on Display in Toronto?

    As I write this piece, we are only hours away from the opening of King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto Canada. I was at the media preview on Friday and wrote an in-depth article on what to expect. For me the Toronto show was the first time in my life that I saw Tuts treasures in person. Its a very remarkable experience to see them withmyown eyes andonethat Im never going to forget. I thought I would take the opportunity to point out a few of Tutankhamun’s treasures which,…

  • 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…

  • site

    The Unfinished Obelisk

    Attribution: GabeD Aswan Egypt Key Dates Work is believed to have begun on the Unfinished Obelisk around 1492 BC. Key People No one can be certain who commissioned the Unfinished Obelisk, but it’s widely believed it was built to mark the 16th anniversary of Queen Hatshepsut coming to the throne. Thutmose III is another possibility. Hatshepsut Thutmose III The Unfinished Obelisk is an enormous chunk of carved granite that lies in situ – still attached to the bedrock – at a quarry near Aswan, in Southern Egypt. It was commissioned as a spectacular monument by an Egyptian ruler in the…