• Ann

    Melbourne Museum brings ‘Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs’ to Australia

    Treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamun will be seen in Australia for the first time, when the Melbourne Museum hosts ‘Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs’, startingApril, 2011. Up to 700,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition, which will feature more than 130 artefacts from Tut’s tomb and the gravesand temples of his ancestors from Egypt’s 200-year ‘Golden Age’. Six months ago,Frank Howarth, director of Sydney’s Australian Museum, said the show’s $10 million price tag for six months, and its size were too big for Australian institutions to handle. In stead, the Australian Museum hosted the…

  • Ann

    Tutankhamun visits Manchester, brings Tomb and Treasures

    King Tut’s treasures are returning to the UK, as ‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’ opened this weekend at Manchester’s Museum of Museums. Over 1,000 faithful replicas offer visitors the opportunity to look through Howard Carter’s eyes and experience the greatest discovery of all time for themselves. The entire world is familiar with ancient Egypt’s ‘piece de resistance’, the symbol of Egyptology King Tut’s golden death mask (slideshow). Yet, fewer people know that when Carter and Carnarvon discovered the pharaoh’s final resting place in 1922, it contained so many treasures that it was almost impossible to enter. It would take…

  • publication

    My Egyptian Grandmother’s Kitchen: Traditional Dishes Sweet and Savory

    Magda Mehdawy has gathered in one book the most complete collection of Egyptian recipes ever assembled. Drawing on the traditional recipes she learned from her grandmother and other members of her generation, Mehdawy offers a surprising range of sumptuous recipes and unusual flavors that are part of Egypt’s millennia-long cultural heritage. She also reveals the historical depth of the national cuisine, beginning with a section on food and wine-making techniques used by the ancient Egyptians. For readers interested in more recent traditions, Mehdawy provides lists of typical menus served on Islamic holidays and feasts, and a fascinating overview of traditional…

  • meral-crifasi

    Quest Your Way to Find the Mummies

    Exploring is more fun now with the new Heritage Key Virtual Quest in the Treasures region! As you land in the Arrivals Area after logging into Heritage Key Virtual, make your way to the teleports where you will see several destinations. Selecting “Treasures” will take you to King Tutankhamun’sGolden Shrine. One of the museum guides will give you the keys that you will need to find the mummy. This is a short quest which will take you into the Golden Shrine. You will slowly open and enter the layers of the shrine and while doing you will get real close…

  • General

    Zahi Hawass

    Attribution: Zahi Hawass (on Flickr) Zahi Hawass Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities 28 May 1947 World-renowned archaeologist Zahi Hawass currently serves as Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and directs ongoing excavations at Giza, Saqqara, and in the Valley of the Kings. Dr. Hawass received his PhD in 1987 from the University of Pennsylvania. He has written numerous scholarly articles and books, and is highly respected as an Egyptologist. Over the course of his long career, he has been presented with numerous awards and honors. In addition, Dr. Hawass is known for his charisma and…

  • owenjarus

    The Sphinx is sexy? New video by Marina Orlova highlights the ancient monument

    What do you get when you combine the Sphinx with cleavage? You get a video that looks something like this (Watch the Video). YouTube phenomenon Marina Orlova, a former teacher who presents facts with a slightly risqu twist, gives a lesson on the famous monument. According to her bio she holds two degrees in philology (that’s historical linguistics), has just under 400,000 YouTube subscribers and yes she did teach high school, back in Russia. She uses the tag line intelligence is sexy. To be fair to her, the video is informative and while her attire is – eye-catching – it…

  • Ann

    Exodus Hydrodynamics: How the East Winds Parted the Red Sea

    The biblical narrative of the crossing of the Red Sea has inspired and mystified people for millennia. So far, Archeologists and Egyptologists have found little direct evidence to substantiate many of the events described in Exodus, said to have taken place more than 3,000 years ago. Now, a new study offers a new hydrodynamic explanation for the miracle a strong east wind, blowing overnight, could have created a land bridge (watch the video) and allowed for passage. By pinpointing a possible site south of the Mediterranean Sea for the crossing, the study – based on a reconstruction of the likely…

  • Ann

    Ancient Egyptian tomb of Karakhamun at Assasif: a major tomb for a minor priest?

    Archaeologists have rediscovered the ‘lost’ tomb an ancient Egyptian priest at the Theban Necropolis in Egypt.It was announced today by Egypt’s Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny, that the team excavating and conservating the tomb has now cleared the burial shaft of tomb and reached its burial chamber. The tomb is located at Qurnet Murai, south Assasif, on the west bank of the Nile opposite to Luxor, and belonged to a priest named Karakhamun. It dates to the 25th Dynasty (the Reign of Shabaqo, circa 700BC) and is referenced as TT223 (Theban Tomb 223). The el-Assasif area is a well known…

  • world

    Interview: Fakes & Forgeries Curator Paul Denis on Greek Coins, Zapotec Artefacts and the Internet

    In a conversation with Heritage Key (HK), Paul Denis (PD), the curator of Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today, a newly announced exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum, talks about how fake ancient artefacts are affecting the museum world. Among the things discussed are: -The emergence of ancient Greek coins as a new hot area for fraudsters. -Why the internet is an awful place to acquire artefacts. -How curators (with a little scientific help) pick out fakes. He also shares some interesting news: of the hundreds of Zapotec artefacts his museum has, about 50 percent are forgeries. He explains how they got duped on such a grand scale.…

  • General

    Nicole Alexanian

    Nicole Alexanian Egyptologist Dr. Nicole Alexanian holds a PhD in Egyptology from Universität Heidelberg. Since 2000 she has been directing a German Archaeological Institute project at Dahshur in Egypt. The site is known as the location of several pyramids. These include the Bent and Red Pyramids, constructed by the pharaoh Snefru during the Egyptian 4th dynasty. It is also home to the Black Pyramid, constructed by Amenemhat III during the Middle Kingdom. Dr. Alexanian and her team have been reconstructing what the Dahshur landscape looked like in ancient times, examining its topography, geology and climate. They found that the ground…