News from Egypt

This one isn't exactly "news" - it's been known for a long time that various pharaohs carried out restoration projects on the Sphinx and that the never-ending issue of wind-driven sand was a constant, vexing problem just about from Day One!  From Heritage Key:

Early conservation effort? 3,400 year old wall found at Giza shows Thutmose IV tried to preserve Sphinx
Submitted by owenjarus on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 14:16

From BBC News, a video feature on a new exhibit at the British Museum, on the world's longest recovered Egyptian Book of the Dead - 37 meters long!  I did not see an "embed" feature at the BBC, so here is the link to the video (for as long as it lasts), with striking images and rather crappy musical background :)

1 November 2010 Last updated at 17:23 ET
The British Museum's major autumn exhibition this year examines ancient Egyptian beliefs about life after death.

Journey through the afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead will show off the museum's collection of papyri, a rare and very fragile collection of spells which were designed to guide the dead safely into eternal life.

The exhibition will include the longest Book of the Dead in the world, the Greenfield Papyrus, which is 37 metres long and has never been shown publicly in its entirety before.

Curator John H Taylor gave BBC News a tour of the exhibition.

Late Period Egyptian Papyri Reveal Age-Old Problems and Concerns
From the University of Cincinnati
Papyrus Research Provides Insights into the ‘Modern Concerns’ of the Ancient World
Date: 10/29/2010 12:00:00 AM

A University of Cincinnati-based journal devoted to research on papyri is due out Nov. 1. That research sheds light on an ancient world with surprisingly modern concerns: including hoped-for medical cures, religious confusion and the need for financial safeguards.

The Mystery of What Happened to the Great Sphinx's Nose

At Heritage Key
Who Nose What Happened to the Great Sphinx of Giza?
Submitted by Prad on Mon, 08/02/2010 - 10:55

Undated photo,
History of the Conservation of the Sphinx,
by Dr. Zahi Hawass.

Despite the horrid pun in the title (it would be hard to resist, though, LOL!), this is a brief and interesting historical review with images (old line drawings and sketches from tourists' diaries and the like) of the Great Sphinx - before and after destruction of her nose.  It seems that Napoleon's troops got a bum rap and they were NOT responsible for shooting it off in target practice back in 1798. 

So, who destroyed the Sphinx's nose - and why?  Were the people who did it religious zealots like the fundy Muslims who blew up the Great Buddha statutes in the Bamiyan Valley in 2001 in Afghanistan?  Will we ever know?