I shall now be speaking to the LOUGHBOROUGH ARCHAEOLOGICAL  and HISTORICAL SOCIETY at The Brockington Building, Loughborough University on Saturday 4th February at 7pm. Subject: DEATH IN THE NILE: The Birth of Egypt’s Last God, Antinous. Contact: Michael Allen – 01509 214879; allenmasimmons@yahoo.co.uk

I am no longer speaking to the Leicestershire Ancient Egyptian Society on February 18th. This meeting is now an AGM.

I shall be speaking on the same topic – Poison, Forgery, Voodoo: The Harem Conspiracy Against Ramesses III, for The Friends of the Petrie Society, on Friday 20th April at 6.30pm, Lecture Theatre G6, Institute of Archaeology, 31 Gordon Square, London WC1. Contact: 020 7679 2369; janpicton@ijnet.demon.co.uk

Sorry to have to announce that Ancient World Tours have cancelled The Grand Tour which they had asked me to lead from February 26th 2012. This was very much an introductory tour to Egypt, and bookings were slow owing to the ongoing unsettled situation in Cairo.

However, Land of the Red Crown – 3rd – 11th November 2012, which appeals more to the experienced visitor, is booking well and should run. As well as popular sites in Cairo, Giza and Saqqara, this tour includes – the pyramids of Dahshur; The Serapeum and New Kingdom Tombs at Saqqara; one of my special areas of expertise – the Hawara Labyrinth, and other Middle Kingdom sites in the Faiyum at Illahun, Medinet Madi, Biahmu, Qasr el Sagha; and also the delta cities of Tanis and Bubastis. 

e-mail: info@ancient.co.uk. Tel: +44 844 357 9494. (UK 0844 357 9494)

Thanks to everyone for making the recent Journey to the Oracle such an amazing trip. I have produced an edited version of my photographs from the trip which records most places and people. There are some beautiful images in the desert dunes, and the Siwa salt lakes at sunset. I will post a few of these in the Gallery here, but contact me for a CD if you were on the trip.

The 2012 Ancient World Tours brochure is now out with some fascinating visits to little-seen sites as well as the better-known monuments. I shall be leading two of these.

The Land of the Red Crown (Nov 3 – 11, 2012) is already attracting a lot of interest.   This tour focuses on some of my areas of especial interest, including the Hawara Labyrinth and the rare surviving monuments of the Middle Kingdom in the Faiyum region; Bubastis and Tanis (and a chance to see the treasures of Tanis, and the Royal Mummies at the Museum); and Saqqara, with clues to the form of the Labyrinth in the Step Pyramid complex, the wonderful Post-Amarna tombs, and the awesome Serapeum. Apart from this, we travel to see a large number of Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids, including those at Dahshur, Meidum and Illahun, as well as Giza. A really fascinating tour, and I know that bookings have already been received.

The Grand Tour (Feb 26th – Mar 11th 2012) ‘does what it says on the tin’ and goes from one end of Egypt to the other, taking in all the ‘must see’ sites along the way. The Giza Pyramids; Islamic Cairo; the Egyptian Museum; Saqqara with the Step Pyramid; Alexandria; the Valley of the Kings; mighty Karnak; the spectacular mortuary temples of Hatshepsut, Ramesses II, and Ramesses III; Luxor Temple and Museum; the tombs of the nobles and the tomb-builders’ village; the Colossi of Memnon; the beautiful temples of Abydos and Dendera; the fabulously well-preserved temples of Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo; the temple of Isis on the island of Philae; the unfinished obelisk; the Nobles’ Tombs; and the superb Nubia Museum. I’ve probably missed a few items here! A great experience.

Contact me or AWT direct: e-mail: info@ancient.co.uk ; UK Phone: 0844 357 9494; International Phone: +44 844 357 9494;

 web site: www.ancient.co.uk

I can now announce that I will be delivering my talk Hidden Treasures of Ancient Egypt at the Ancient World Tours Amarna Conference at UCL September 3rd-4th 2011 (not far off now!)

This talk was recently developed and updated with the new subtitle of  Before and After Akhenaten; and I shall concentrate on this part of the content in the time available.

e-mail Contact: info@ancient.co.uk Web Site: www.ancient.co.uk

Even at the height of the recent revolution Egypt remained a relatively safe destination for visitors, and many will want to return there before the sites become crowded. I shall be leading three tours to Egypt for Ancient World Tours in the coming months – one later this year, and two in 2012.

 I believe there are still some places left on Journey To The Oracle (from October 8^th 2011 – 12 days) which starts in Cairo where I, for one, will be very interested to see the situation in the Museum following the raid and subsequent restorations. After this it is off to the desert where we probably follow the route taken by Alexander the Great in reverse. First stop is the Bahariya Oasis with its tombs and vestigial temple of Alexander. The next stretch of desert is one of the least travelled and takes us eventually to the remote oasis of Siwa, home to the Temple of the Oracle, where Alexander had his divine ancestry confirmed. Having explored the sites and taken in the atmosphere over two days, we head up to the coast, and on via El Alamein to Alexandria. Here we see all the key monuments before returning to Cairo and making the most of the spectacular sites of Giza and Saqqara. See www.ancient.co.uk for further details.

The Grand Tour (from February 26^th 2012 – 15 days) travels virtually the full length of Egypt – from Alexandria to Abu Simbel – visiting all the major sites, and thus providing an excellent introduction to ancient Egypt. Cairo – including the Egyptian Museum, highlights of the old Islamic city, and trips to Saqqara and Giza to see the mastabas, pyramids, and sphinx; Alexandria – including the National Museum, the catacombs, serapeum, Anshufi tombs, Pompey’s Pillar, and Qaitbay Fort on the site of the legendary Pharos; Luxor – including the elegant Museum, tombs in the Valley of the Kings (including Ay, and optional Tutankhamun), the vivid and beautiful tombs of the nobles, the Ramesseum, Karnak and Luxor Temples, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the workers’ village at Deir el Medina, the fabulous temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, the Colossi of Memnon; a day trip to the sublime temples of Seti I at Abydos (with also that of Ramesses II), and Dendera with the depiction of Cleopatra; the Temples of Esna, Edfu and Kom Ombo; Aswan – including the unfinished obelisk, the magical Temple of Isis at Philae, the Nubian Museum, the tombs of the nobles at Kubbet el Hawa, and an optional trip to Abu Simbel.

We are still confirming some details of the Cairo-based Lower Egypt Tour (from November 3^rd 2012 – 9 days), but certainly included are the Egyptian Museum; the Giza pyramids and sphinx; trips to Bubastis and Tanis; and to the Faiyum – certainly including the legendary Labyrinth at Hawara, and probably also Medinet Madi, Qasr Qarun, and Biahmu. At Saqqara we hope to include the newly-opened New Kingdom tombs of Horemheb, Maya, Tia and Tia etc., and maybe the Serapeum, as well as the Step Pyramid, the Old Kingdom mastabas, and the pyramid of Teti. More to follow.

Hope to see some of you on these!

PREMIERE. To what extent have DNA tests supported or superseded existing techniques in identifying royal mummies? This new talk will be given for the first time at The Library, Beetwell Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, UK, at 7pm on June 13th 2011.

The recent published findings will be placed in the context of previous work on the royal mummies, and the methods by which identifications were arrived at through DNA will be demonstrated. You will be able to decide for yourself how strong you believe the identifications of various relatives of Tutankhamun really are!

 I look forward to seeing you there.

In the next few months you will have chances to see talks explaining how The Royal Mummies of Ancient Egypt were discovered and how we establish their identify; explorations of  curious lost and overlooked monuments in Hidden Treasures of Ancient Egypt; see how recent events give clues to ancient history in Poison, Forgery and Voodoo: The Harem Conspiracy Against Ramesses III; uncover the political scheming behind the ancient Egyptian court trials in The Tomb-robbers of No-Amun; and examine the fragmentary clues to the form of a legendary lost building in The Egyptian Labyrinth: A Middle Kingdom Enigma. Some of these talks are given more than once. See details in FORTHCOMING TALKS PROGRAMME on this site.

Have something good to look forward to in 2011. Exploring the Route of the Exodus from Egypt does just what it says in the title, and visits many places in Cairo, the Delta, North and South Sinai, and Jordan to examine various different theories for the route of the Biblical Exodus. Previous tours of mine have been great great fun and seen lots of unusual sites as well as the better known highlights. We spend three nights at Petra, but there are many other exciting locations on this tour, including the Wadi Tumilat, Lake Bardawil, El Arish, etc.

See details on the TOURS page of this site and contact me.

 In 1881 Emile Brugsch entered Tomb TT320 and found it to be full of coffins containing the mummies of royalty from the New Kingdom, together with those of a family of semi-royal High Priests of the 21^st dynasty. The find included the remains of such famous figures as Ahmose I,  Ahmose Nefertari, Amenhotep I, Thutmose III, Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses III.

 The records made by Brugsch of the tomb layout and contents were, however, woeful; and in 1998 a team directed by Professor Erhart Graefe reopened the tomb, made preliminary plans (thereby undermining many theories), and began clearance work. I was able to visit the work in progress when it resumed in 2003, and spend a lot of time in the partly-cleared tomb whilst National Geographic filmed us there in 2004. My final visit was during the 2005 season when the Burial Chamber was almost completely cleared. Work concluded in 2006.

 I have written quite extensively on the tomb and its contents (see forthcoming Part 1 of Refugees for Eternity, Finding the Pharaohs, about this and the discovery of other royal mummies and caches) and was asked to provide the opening chapter for the official publication edited by Erhart Graefe and Galina Belova, The Royal Cache TT320: a re-examination (Cairo 2010). My chapter is a detailed examination of the evidence for both the discovery of the tomb by native robbers – the Abd er Rassul brothers – and the clearance by the Antiquities service under Emile Brugsch and Ahmed Kamal.

 Professor Graefe describes the clearance and finds, Edward Loring writes on the relationship of the 21^st dynasty with the tomb, and there are extensive descriptions and illustrations of the finds, with pottery analysis by Ashraf Senoussi. The report was published by the SCA and includes a Preface by Dr. Zahi Hawass with personal reminiscences of entering the tomb, and remarks on the significance of the find with regard to the current studies being undertaken on the royal mummies.

 ISBN. 978-977-704-077-8