Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures Exhibition

These days I get to so many cool events and shows, so I figured that I'd cover the ones that deserve it.  That's where the blog's "A little bit of everything" title comes in I guess. While I'm in the motoring media industry and I've always loved cars, when I was but a wee one I used love archeology like my life depended on it. I used to be able to name hundreds of dinosaurs and tell you when and where they lived. I was (and still am) very interested in ancient civilisations, Egypt being at the top of the list.  Even more-so for my wife, she's a complete nutter for this stuff, she can recite the information in just about every episode of Ancient Aliens.

    When it was announced last year that the amazing 'Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures' roadshow was coming to SA, I made a point to get myself and my wife there. More for her than for me, of course I just wanted to get pics of everything, because, well, it's what I do. 

    If you're even only slightly into this kind of thing, it's well worth your while to see this exhibit. It's currently housed in Silverstar Casino's new 2000-square-metre entertainment venue and will be there until 1 March. It's now one long history lesson inside the dome. You're lead through the timeline of events from the first archeological digs in Egypt until the tomb was found, opened and the wares found inside catalogued.  

    It starts off with a multimedia presentation that first gives you the history on, well, the history. From when a young Howard Carter first started longing to visit Egypt until he was almost forced to quit (just before he met his new generous benefactor) until his amazing discovery. There's nothing left out, and you can make sure you catch all the info too thanks to the ingenious way you can look and listen to the presentations in your own time, on your own handheld unit. Just one thing on the unit, you hold it up to your ear as if you're on a phone call. It's ok until you realise that you may be holding the unit in that position for a very long time, causing a cramp or two. The handheld units have a small jack though, so you can plug in your phone / Mp3 player's headphones and be a helluva lot more comfortable. 

     The dome was divided into different sections, each with a different presentation to listen to and different artifacts to have a look at. There were a few of these before the dome opened up into the biggest section that was filled with all the coolest artifacts I've ever seen. 
   Now of course none of these were original, I deduced that from the lack of security and 'Do not touch' signs. Also, the original stuff is priceless and I doubt anyone would chance damaging things in an exhibit that travels the world. Still, these exact replicas are amazing to see. The ancient Egyptians were in another league.  
    It's mad to think that this stuff was so close to not being discovered. Also, that there could well be more amazing things like this buried in Egypt's deserts. There's so much history out there that we've missed, so much information we'll never know. I think when I'm old and cranky, I'll get myself out there, exploring all sorts of interesting places. Ok, make that when I'm older and crankier, so not that far off really.

    While my wife was busy soaking up all the information, I was off taking pics. There was just so much to see. The second last section of the exhibit is basically a life-size exploded diagram of what was found in the tomb. Like I said, I knew quite a bit about this and have read books and papers on it, but seeing the exact dimensions of the tomb and the way it was packed was mind blowing. The size and weight of the things and the lack of space to move them around inside the tomb... Aliens!

    The last section had all the same artifacts in again, this time spread apart over many awesome displays so that you could get a closer look. This young king had way too many cool things buried with him, I can only imagine how much stuff was used for an older, long reigning king. This is where I went mad taking pics, I took way too many, but loved every second of it. I'll add in my favourites below.
    This is a great exhibit, a must-see if you're even slightly interested in this stuff. I think every school in the province should have a field trip to see this (do schools still do field trips?). I would have loved to see this when I was at the age I dreamed of discovering things like this. It's affordable too, tickets are priced from R80 to R160 per person and there's a discounted family package of four tickets for R440. Kids 5 and under can get in free, but honestly, that's a little too young for this, they'd be super bored and you'd miss out on lots while making sure they don't climb into a sarcophagus. It's open on every day of the week, so you should easily be able to fit it into your schedule. 
    I consider myself lucky that we were able to see this, it's been all over the world, including cities ranging from Zurich and Munich, to Madrid, Budapest, Dublin, Brussels, Paris and Seoul. Try not miss this one.

There's all the info you need on the local website Tutankhamun – His Tomb and His Treasures. 

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