Tutankhamun Exhibition

Mrs Shiney and I went with some friends today to see the Tutankhamun Exhibition at the O2 venue (used to be The Millennium Dome).

The O2 is quite easily accessible by public transport as well as having plenty of car parking space. They have been developing the building and there are a lot of restaurants, cafes and bars as well as a multi-screen cinema, an ice skating rink and a large and a small venue. The large venue hosts shows like pop concerts and other concerts and the Tutankhamun Exhibition occupied the other.

Although the exhibition was well laid out, atmosphere was good and the display cards gave good information the whole thing was a great disappointment. The number of exhibits was fairly low and not the range that would be expected. Mrs Shiney and I have been to Egypt recently and seen the display in the Cairo Museum. Although we could not expect to see anywhere near the number of exhibits in London as they have in Cairo the London exhibition had only half the rooms with exhibits about Tutankhamun. A lot of those items were not anywhere near the quality of the of those in the Cairo Museum and many of them are modern replicas ââ?¬â?? albeit very good ones. The Egyptians say that they will not allow the gold mask to leave their country again but they could have at least displayed a replica.

Value for money was very poor. I can understand them not wanting to send their priceless famous relics abroad but I would not expect to pay so much for what was there. The weekend entrance fee for an adult is �£20 (plus �£2 processing fee) - �£15 during the week. If you are not well informed about Egyptian history then you would really need to hire their headphones/cassette for �£4. Egypt are justifying the high charge by saying that they need to have a high income to support all the archeological work they are doing now. They only charged �£3 entrance fee for the whole of the Cairo Museum!!

We, of course, got the wrinklies concessions so did not pay that price and did not need to hire their headsets. We were able to explain a lot of the background and detail to our friends and ended up having other visitors listening to us. Although you would need to go to Cairo to see the proper exhibition you can go to the British Museum (free of charge) for a much better and much larger ancient Egyptian display.

Having said all that, we enjoyed our day (despite the weather) and spent some time in Brick Lane visiting the market and having a very good Indian meal, and also looked around Canary Wharf.

 

Hi mira, I didn't know that but these museums are a good way of getting children interested in ancient history.

A couple of other things I didn't mention. They don't allow photography at the exhibition whereas the British Museum does allow it.

The shop at the exhibition has some good books etc but their souvenirs are a bit tacky. You can buy a tissue box holder where you pull the tissues out through a hole in Tutankhamun's nostrils :eek: . How tasteful :D

someone has just pointed out to me that a big national newspaper entitled their report on the exhibition something like 'King Tut exhibition is a load of Tat' :D

 

Glad you enjoyed it Shiney, despite it all. I agree about the British Museums display of Egyptian. I think it is one of the best. The Bristol Museum also has a very good informative Egyptian section too..
:( Maybe the rent in the Millenium Dome is high & the real reason......!! :(

 

MF, the Egyptian minister is saying that there is no free lunch anymore and it is about time they got something back for a change. His words - not mine

 

:( :rolleyes: Seems a little bit one sided then shiney.... Wonder if they will cover their costs this time then... :(

 

I saw it when it was in London - 1972 I think, and when it was in Boston. With both those exhibitions they had the mask and a lot of the gold and jewelery.