New Exhibition Opens at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo



Posted: Friday, June 04, 2010

by Nick Laing
http://www.steppestravel.co.uk

A Children's LEGO Exhibition has recently opened at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo , inspired by a Lego exhibition entitled "The secrets of the Pharaohs," which toured Europe years ago.

The exhibition has been recently inaugurated in a special ceremony at the Egyptian Museum by His Royal Highness Prince Henrik, Dr. Zahi Hawass, Head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Wafaa Al Saddik and the Danish Ambassador to Cairo .

The Lego pieces are properly displayed together with authentic monuments dating back to different Ancient Egyptian eras. The museum also includes a small workshop area for children to design different Lego shapes. The models includes a statue of a sphinx, a model of the mask of the boy pharaoh King Tutankhamen and a model showing the pyramids construction, and a statue of Ramses II. Introducing Lego to Egypt is such a great and creative initiative, which will certainly encourage children to know more about their ancient history in a simplified way. Displaying authentic pieces along Lego ones, will surely help children visualize how these statues originally looked like.

If off the beaten track' Egypt appeals to you more I would highly recommend the western desert which is much less visited and is home to a host of less famous but no less impressive historical finds. Most recently has been the discovery of 14 New Graeco-Roman Tombs in Bahariya Oasis. Dating back to the third century BC these include one with a female mummy adorned with jewellery. The Greco-Roman tombs were found in a cemetery in the Ain El-Zawya area of Bawiti, a town in the Bahariya Oasis. This site was initially intended for the construction of a youth centre, but has now been turned over to Egypt 's antiquities authority.

"Within the tombs we have uncovered four masks made of plaster, a gold chip with engravings of the four sons of Horus, a collection of metal coins, as well as clay and glass vessels," said Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA)

Another discovery within the tombs was a 97 cm tall female mummy with jeweled eyes that was cast in coloured plaster dressed in Roman attire and wearing jewellery.

Bahariya Oasis is well known as home to Egypt 's Valley of the Golden Mummies, where a collection of 17 tombs with about 254 mummies was discovered in 1996. I visited this on my last trip and it was amazing, particularly as the so called museum is more like a warehouse and I was the only person there!

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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)
» left by Jennifer Stewart
 1 year 349 days ago.
153 fans.
I visited Egypt some time ago - stayed in Cairo, then took a boat down the Nile for about 4 days, temple hopping. It was spectacular, but one thing I sore wanted was to be alone in a temple or on a site! You lucky fish...
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