Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

http://tinyurl.com/mz5dh (aljazeera.com)Not an Egyptology item, but something that I think many people will be sad to read: “Let me pay a tribute to Egypt’s Nobel Prize-winning writer Naguib Mahfouz who died today at the age of 94, following a long battle against illness.Mahfouz, born in the Gamaliya quarter of Cairo in [...]

http://ansa.it/main/notizie/awnplus/english/news/2006-08-29_1292885.html (ansa.it)“As well as savouring an array of artistic and architectural delights, visitors to Siena can now learn how to make the cosmetics of the Pharaohs .The Tuscan city’s Santa Maria della Scala complex is holding workshops on preparing ancient Egyptian make-up, skin creams and beauty potions .The initiative is [...]

http://tinyurl.com/p6wby (swissinfo.org)A short but interesting article about the recent annual meeting of the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AIEST) at Pontresina, Switzerland. It cites the two most notorious attacks in Egypt as indicators, amongst others, that atrocities are having less impact on tourist behaviour than previously: “Swiss professor Thomas [...]

Luxor Newshttp://touregypt.net/teblog/luxornews/A big welcome back to Jane Akshar and her Luxor News blog, after her holiday. Jane, you were much missed! To see her Egyptian husband’s main insights into life in the UK after his first visit, see her website above.EEFhttp://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Alley/4482/EEFNEWS.htmlAlso a welcome back to EEF after some technical difficulties - [...]

http://tinyurl.com/e7zzz (newyorker.com)Included in their “Goings on About Town” section, the New Yorker have included a brief review of some of the Egyptology exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum of Art: “Oldfashioned museological Egyptology meets state-of-the-art, user-friendly installation in the permanent exhibition “Egypt Reborn.” The sunny, spacious galleries present thousands of objects, [...]

http://tinyurl.com/m6rum (sis.gov.eg)“Tourist artistic “Charming Egypt” exhibition was opened in the Chinese capital Beijing on Sunday 27/8/2006 as part of Egyptian tourist promotion efforts. The exhibition houses 150 artistic paintings depicting the history of Egypt and the way of life of Egyptians over the various historical eras. The exhibition was held on [...]

http://tinyurl.com/gdr2h (wfaa.com)More of a review of the life of Hatshepsut than a review of the exhibition: “She’s not as famous as Cleopatra, but Hatshepsut’s rise to power in ancient Egypt has the makings of a movie. Add the fact that her name was effectively erased from history after a prosperous reign of [...]

http://tinyurl.com/ndyqc (northafrica.andnetwork.com)“Along with the Suez Canal and oil and gas revenues, tourism is one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency and, as the number of tourists increase every year, so does the importance of the money they pump into the national economy. Patterns, however, are shifting, with tourists looking for [...]

It’s always a quiet time of the year on the Egyptology news front, but it’s unusual not to find anything at all to post about. Today, apart from some repetitive pieces on the Ramesses II statue move, is one of those unusual days, so I’ll fill the gap by announcing that [...]

http://www.londragazete.com/?newsid=8842&category=119“An Egyptian mystery to rival the cursed tomb of King Tut emerged this week at Forty Hall when a researcher from the British Museum contacted the Museum’s Manager about some mysterious Egyptian figures in the museum collection. The museum discovered the four valuable and ancient Egyptian Shabti, or funerary figures, [...]

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/809/eg4.htmhttp://tinyurl.com/o86cp (theage.com.au)http://voanews.com/english/2006-08-25-voa20.cfmhttp://tinyurl.com/qtyf4 (sis.gov.eg)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/5286288.stmI have no idea quite why the removal of the statue of Ramesses II to a new home has caught the media’s imagination to such an extent, but you can’t move on the Web without a reference to it. The above URLs are some of the most recent and informative [...]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/15351309.htm“Nothing looks better in the Kimbell Art Museum than extremely large pieces of stone sculpture. Though the building was designed to hold a collection of European portraits and Asian art, when an ancient Egyptian show is installed, it seems as if the building were designed specifically for that purpose, and the [...]

Review: Atlantis Questhttp://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r29153.htm“The rubies and emeralds sparkle as you move a stone to make rows of three like jewels. When three are in sequence, they vanish and the surrounding gems move into the empty space in the same manner that a row is cleared in a hardy game of Tetris. It is, [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5282414.stmThe statue of Ramesses II is on the move in Cairo: “It is being moved overnight to a site near the pyramids outside Cairo. Tens of thousands of people have been watching the colossus move through the city at a stately pace on two flatbed trucks. It is being transported in [...]

Interesting FT article looking at the demand for legally available antiquities, looking at the impact of the recent cases regarding repatriation claims, the risks involved in purchasing antiquities, and pricing issues: “Queen Mutnodjmet’s face is calm, dignified and relaxed. Befitting an Egyptian monarch, her expression is cool and confident with a [...]

http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/field/index.htmlDetails of the 2006 season at Hierakonpolis have been added to Archaeology magazine’s website at the above address. Divided into three sections, updates are provided about Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom decorated tombs, the so-called Fort and the accidental discovery of new subterranean chambers (Renee Friedman fell down a previously unknown [...]

http://www.allyourtv.com/0607season/egyptianbookdead.html“The History Channel special The Egyptian Book Of The Dead focuses on perhaps the most famous known example of the scroll. It was commissioned by a temple scribe named Ani at a period around 1250 B.C.E.While most scrolls tended to be straightforward (often generic) groupings of spells, Ani spent an enormous [...]

http://tinyurl.com/gddyw (int.iol.co.za)“Google Earth mapped the route for a colossal statue of ancient Egypt’s powerful warrior king, Ramses II, from congested Cairo to a new home near the pyramids.Google Earth, owned by the world’s top Internet search engine, added a ‘Statue of Ramses II’ section to its map index in tribute to the [...]

http://tinyurl.com/hqhov (science.monstersandcritics.com)“Archaeologists in Luxor, central Egypt, have found five headless sphinxes which belonged to a sphinx-lined avenue connecting a temple built by pharaohs in the city with Karnak, antiquity administrators in Cairo said. Scientists are now trying to discover whether the figures match four broken sphinx heads, found a long time [...]

http://tinyurl.com/qzj9b (alphagalileo.org)News resource AlphaGalileo reports on an article about digitization of hieroglyphs in the latest edition of New Scientist: “The hieroglyphics that cover the columns and walls of Egyptian temples are in danger of washing away. Groundwater constantly seeps into the stone on which they are engraved, depositing a corrosive layer [...]

http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Egypt/10062370.htmlThe statue of Ramesses II will be moved tomorrow, on an Egyptian public holiday, from its over-polluted home and will be installed in its new Giza location on Friday: “Sayed Hamdan, a roving photographer, says he cannot imagine central Cairo without the statue of Ramses II. Hamdan is one of scores [...]

http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/noticia.php?id=12104“Over the last ten years, exhibition Mysteries of Ancient Egypt Itinerant Museum has been travelling Brazilian states taking replicas and original items from the past of the Arab country. This time, the show is in the country capital, Brasília, and includes 70 articles, of which 16 are original, belonging to Brazilian [...]

http://tinyurl.com/og4hm (sis.gov.eg)“The Polish capital Warsaw will host as of August 27 a conference on Nubian monuments, Polish Cultural Counselor in Cairo Gabriela Piotrowska told MENA on Monday. The conference, to last till September 2, will be organized by several Polish institutes. Some 200 researchers will attend the conference, in which at [...]

http://tinyurl.com/gqtyb (thestar.com.my)For those keeping tabs on the various claims by governments seeking the repatriation of artefacts, here is the latest news from the Getty Museum: “The J. Paul Getty Museum has signed over to Greece ownership of two ancient artifacts at the heart of a major cultural heritage dispute, officials said [...]

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,20158430-17102,00.html“The National Gallery of Australia will host an exhibition of Egyptian artefacts from the Louvre in Paris, from November 17. Says the gallery: ‘Follow the soul on its journey from earthly life to eternity in this exhibition. The collection of more than 200 reveals the mysteries of Egyptian art and culture [...]

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/imhotepmuseum.htmFor those interested in the new Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, there’s a good feature on the Tour Egypt website at the above address, describing the museum’s galleries and the artefacts that they contain, accompanied by a large number of excellent photographs.

http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=9772“The concrete base of the giant statue of Pharaoh Ramses II, scheduled to be moved to a new location, has been disconnected safely here, Director of Arab Contractors Company Ibrahim Mehleb has said. The company, in charge of a project to move the statue to another location, confirmed that no damage [...]

http://www.artknowledgenews.com/Kimbell_Art_Museum-Hatshepsut_exhibit.htmlThe Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas) will be opening its doors this coming Sunday August 27th to Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, which will be showing until 31st December 2006: “The exhibition features a number of monumental statues of Hatshepsut herself, including images of her as a female ruler, as [...]

http://tinyurl.com/r2gmg (photonics.com)“The conservation of an Egyptian tomb is a delicate, painstaking process. Dirt must be removed without damaging the fragile surfaces of the walls. In some cases, the grime is attached so firmly to the surface that even conventional hand-cleaning using chemical or mechanical methods is unsuitable. Application of water or [...]

http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=6608The Pyramids and the Sphinx“Bursting with full-color photographs and drawings, this beautifully illustrated book serves as a wonderful introduction to these royal monuments. The straightforward text explains the history and significance not only of the famous Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza, but also of the lesser-known tombs that stretch [...]