Archive for February, 2008

I’m very pleased to announce the opening of my new art exhibition titled “Umbrales” in Spanish which translates to “Thresholds”. It is a series of paintings (acrylics on canvas) inspired by the Egyptian Book of Gates. If you happen to be in the San Juan Puerto Rico area you’re most welcomed to attend. A review... »

Three hot air balloons carrying 60 tourists crashed around the Egyptian Nile resort town of Luxor overnight, injuring seven passengers, a security offical said. Six Colombians and a British national were injured. “Three balloons, carrying a total of 60 tourists, crashed in three different locations,” the official said. “The injured were taken to hospital and some... »

A new study by Italian researchers has determined that two of the pyramids of Giza in Egypt were conceived as a single project. According to Giulio Magli of the mathematics department at Milan’s Polytechnic University, astronomical alignments and the landscape indicate that the two main pyramids, those identified with the tombs of Khufu and Khafre,... »

Over the past year the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square has hosted several archaeological exhibitions commemorating the anniversaries of excavation work carried out by foreign archaeological institutes and missions all over Egypt and highlighting their contribution to preserving the national archaeological heritage. Among these were the German, Polish, French and American institutes in Egypt.... »

Egyptian billionaire Ibrahim Kamel plans to build a $500 million seaside resort near the World War II battlefield of Al-Alamein, where the Allies defeated General Irwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps in 1942. Kamel’s Kato Group will construct 4,000 hotel rooms, a golf course, mall and entertainment complex in Ghazala Bay on the Mediterranean... »

Spanish archaeologists have discovered a well-preserved burial chamber in Dra Abul Naga, an ancient cemetery on Luxor’s west bank, which may contain the mummy of an ancient warrior. The surprise find happened during routine excavations in a courtyard of the tomb of Djehuty, a high-ranking official under Queen Hatshepsut whose burial site was built... »

Maureen Clemmons, president of the management consulting practice Transformations, is conducting an experiment along with Cal Poly Pomona University to demonstrate how ancient Egyptians might have built the pyramids. Architecture students in the cement and masonry structure class will construct a 106-ton pyramid without modern tools. Instead, they will employ Clemmons techniques of compacting the... »

A rare U.S. double eagle gold coin that could be worth up to $15 million has been found by an Egyptian couple as they cleaned out their flat, the Qatar Ar-Raya newspaper said on Monday. The precious piece of gold was discovered in an old box that had once belonged to Mohammed Ismail’s grandfather while... »

Chief Warrant Officer Edward George Johnson, a US Army helicopter pilot, was stationed in Cairo in September 2002 when about 370 artifacts dating to 3,000+ BC were stolen from the Ma’adi Museum. A year later he contacted an art dealer, claiming the antiquities, some of which has been consigned to galleries in New York,... »

Lynn Barber’s tongue-in-cheek comment about taking your children on an Egypt vacation: “Incidentally if you have children of an impressionable age, do not take them to Egypt because it will inevitably make them want to become archaeologists when they grow up and then they will spend their adult lives sorting shards in some dim county... »