Normally, this is a blog about travel and camping in particular. However, this blog installment will cover a recent visit to by our family to the Atlanta Civic Center. Our visit was on the occasion to view the King Tutankhamun exhibit from Egypt.
We started our tour by viewing a 3-D movie about the ancient kings of Egypt and their rules of Egypt. While a 30 minute over view of 3,000 years of absolute rule, there were a few items omitted from the history such as the fact that some of this 3,000 year history was ruled by Nubian kings that I thought were important and should have been included. The film did cover the last 300 years of Egypt’s golden age when she was ruled by the Ptoleme’s with Cleopatra ruling Egypt as Egypt’s last Pharaoh.
This touring exhibit has just come to the USA from Germany and included several key pieces from the tomb of King Tut. However, we were disappointed that the majority of the exhibit consisted of pieces from reigns other than Tut’s. In fact, the isographic piece, the burial mask that appears on the ticket stubs and is the most famous artifact from the Tutankhamun tomb was not even in the exhibit! One from an earlier Pharaoh was.
Boys in front of Poster of Tut's Coffinette (minature coffin that contained some of his internal organs)
It was, however, fascinating to see statues that dated back to earlier than 2,500 B.C. and I will say this, when I saw the first statue of a seated Pharaoh I gasped to myself. My breath was momentarily taken away by the site of the alabaster Pharaoh seated separated from the viewers only by a stainless steel cable at knee level warmed by the spotlights shinning down on his smoothly carved face. I guess I have waited my entire professional life since Architectural History at Auburn University to see Egyptian antiquity and staring at the beautifully carved hyroglyphs on the sides and back of the statue struck me with no less than awe. I was also fascinated as I viewed the wall listing each Pharaohnic dynasty and each ruler in each dynasty as I learned that Hollywood actually got it right…the first King of Egypt really was the Scorpion King! All-in-all, the exhibit was very nicely presented and taking my time, much to the dismay of my other family members, I spent two solid hours perusing the objects on display.
Photography was strictly forbidden in the exhibit areas so I was unable to get any photographs of the items on display. I would have loved to get a photo of the boys next to a representative piece to “prove they were there”, but that wasn’t allowed, so I had to be satisfied with photos of the boys next to some of the exterior posters and artwork. The tickets from admission will have to go into their scrap books as proof that they attended a once in a lifetime event in Atlanta.
Tags: Museums
