Roseville Columnist Impressed with Tut Exhibit

Watching TV coverage of the recent revolution in Cairo's Tahrir Square, I could get my bearings when the stolid pink Egyptian Museum flashed on the screen. Amid that upheaval, the museum remained mostly unscathed, and I was glad to have visited it before the riots, even though it is an outdated, ungainly barn.

I've heard that a new museum is under construction near the Pyramids, where future tourists will see its five millenia of collections under better conditions. The current building is hot, dusty, ill-lit, crowded, its best displays always some long staircase away.

What a pleasure it was on a recent hot-as-Cairo Saturday to leave my Roseville home and visit the Science Museum of Minnesota on Kellogg Boulevard see "Tutankhamun, The Golden King and The Great Pharaohs."  Its the largest display ever staged there -- 16,000 square feet of air-conditioned, one-level wonders in a traveling show organized by National Geographic, which has already attracted 225,000 during its St. Paul stay. I paid $29 for a senior full price ticket, not cheap, but much less costly than flying to Cairo.

As in that city's museum, the local visitor has to view the leaders of countless Egyptian dynasties before getting to the main attraction, treasures from King Tut's tomb. For me, the first rooms were a refresher course of lore learned from knowlegeable guides we met in Egypt, and when I saw a name I recognized, it was like meeting an old -- very old -- friend. Homage was paid to Imhotep, the ancient architect who designed the Step Pyramid, the first to be used for royal burials, which we saw one blistering day near Cairo. 

I was glad to greet my favorite pharaoh, the female Hatshepsut who ruled in a man's world. I was particularly taken by the carved head of Amenhotep III, still bearing a hint of red paint, and by the life-size seated figure of Queen Nofret, her hair curling modestly over her breast. I learned more about them via ample, easy-to-read descriptions, which are sorely lacking in the Egyptian Museum.

Finally, were were funneled to the rooms holding the gilded treasures of King Tut. I expected to recognize pieces that I'd noticed in the Cairo displays, but only one item was familiar, a pair of solid gold sandals to protect royal feet.

Turns out that when Howard Carter opened Tut's tomb in 1922, he discovered several similar sandals. Science Museum public relations coordinator Sarah Imholte jokes, "Everyone needs a few pairs of golden shoes."

When I was in Cairo two years ago, the items now in St. Paul had already gone on the road, so this show magnified my chance to see glittering items from Tut's world. I was particular taken with a golden leopard's head, and by a lapiz scarab-infested pectoral collar that protected the boy king's chest (he was 9 when he started his 10-year reign). Most dazzling is a Canopic Coffinette which resembles the familiar blue and gold coffin of Tut, but in miniature, designed to hold some of his embalmed innards.

If you asked friends to name a pharaoh, chances are the first words you'd hear would be "King Tut". The irony is that after his death, he was hardly remembered because he was so young and didn't leave much of a mark on Egyptian history. Such anonymity didn't attract robbers to his grave in the Valley of the Kings, so the incredible treasure remained undiscovered until this past century. And you won't discover them now unless you get to the Science Museum by September 5, before the show leaves here to dazzle Houston.