Archive for July, 2011

Nineteen artifacts taken from the tomb of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun will be returned to Egypt next week after more than half a century at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The trove includes a miniature bronze dog and a sphinx-shaped bracelet ornament. The move, scheduled for Tuesday, is the result of an agreement... »

Archaeologists working in Egypt have discovered an ancient harbor at Mersa Gawasis on the coast of the Red Sea. It’s long been known that the Egyptians traded down the coast of Africa, but the location of their embarkation was unknown. A famous carving at Deir el-Bahari, the temple of female pharaoh Hatshepsut, shows an ocean-going... »

This interactive journey, first presented to the public in a 3D theatre in Paris, has now migrated onto the home desktop. To watch the film, users simply download a plug-in and don a pair of 3D glasses – although the software gives the sensation of depth without them too, to a lesser extent. With help of... »

The tomb of 18th dynasty Kha was discovered in 1906 by archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in Deir-al-Medina, near the Valley of the Kings. Among Kha’s belongings were measuring instruments including cubit rods, a levelling device that resembles a modern set square, and what appeared to be an oddly shaped empty wooden case with a hinged... »

“Apart from the traditional historic sites, Egypt has launched Fawanees, a month-long festival, to offer discount prices at tourist venues, shopping malls and other facilities,” Tourism Minister Munir Fakhri Abdul Nour told an international press conference in Cairo. Abdul Nour said that that the festival, which started just few days before the beginning... »

The Egyptian approach (especially to the travel industry) to recover tourism post the January/ February uprising has tended to focus more on what tourists can do for Egypt rather than on why it should be in the best interest of tourists to visit Egypt. The ETA and the Egyptian tourism industry has gone part... »

Oxford University is asking for help deciphering ancient Greek texts written on fragments of papyrus found in Egypt. The huge collection of papyri was found in the Egyptian city Oxyrhynchus (City of the Sharp-Nosed Fish), and scientists dated the some 200,000 segments back to between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1,000. The images have gone on display... »

The current secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (which Zahi Hawass also headed before becoming the first and only minister of antiquities), Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, supports abolishing the ministry and turning it into a council controlled by the cabinet. He explained that the antiquities sector funds itself independently and does not need government... »

Egypt’s prime minister Essam Sharaf announced earlier in the week that Zahi Hawass was to be replaced by Abdel Fattah el Banna as minister of antiquities. But Sharaf reversed himself and decided to temporarily keep Hawass in his post. “Dr. El Banna has accused several of the antiquities employees of corruption and thus triggered much... »

The exhibition Pharaoh: King of Egypt, with over 130 works on loan from the British Museum, has just opened at the Great North Museum in Newcastle tomorrow. It’s free and on there until September 25th before going on tour to Dorchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol over the next two years. One of the fascinating... »