Nevine El-Aref celebrates the Australians' 25th anniversary in Egyptology

Over the past year the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square has hosted several archaeological exhibitions commemorating the anniversaries of excavation work carried out by foreign archaeological institutes and missions all over Egypt and highlighting their contribution to preserving the national archaeological heritage.

A team of Indian and American archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of an ancient city, estimated as 2,500 years old, in the Sishupalgarh area of the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

Ancient tribe of Maya passed on a legend that tells of the 13 crystal sculls able to save the world from a terrible catastrophe.

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Before Zeus hurled his first thunderbolt from Olympus, the pre-Greek people occupying the land presumably paid homage and offered sacrifices to their own gods and goddesses, whose nature and identities are unknown to scholars today.

By Andrea Pitzer

The discovery of an ancient Roman cave has unearthed a debate about its historical purpose and delved into a deeper question for scholars: Can archaeology prove mythology?

By PAUL JOHNSON

Britain's history is rich in fiery queens, and the first such heroine, tall with red hair down to her waist, commanding and brave, was Boadicea, warrior leader of the ancient Britons.

Mysterious symbols carved into Scotland’s medieval churches, castles and bridges are to be studied and recorded in a new scheme supported by Historic Scotland

By MATTI FRIEDMAN

JERUSALEM (AP) - Underneath the homes and ragged streets of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan lie the remnants of a glorious Jewish past: coins, seals, a water tunnel hewn by a Judean king 2,700 years ago, a road that led to a biblical Temple.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

By Jeanna Bryner

People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research.

Between 1902 and 1914 the German Ethnological Institute sent repeated expeditions into the great Taklamakan desert of Central Asia, in search of ancient manuscripts that had survived destruction due to the arid climate of the Tarim Basin.

Andrew Leonard

By Hedieh Ghavidel

The history of medicine in Iran is as old and as rich as its civilization. In the Avesta, science and medicine rise above class, ethnicity, nationality, race, gender and religion.

Missing for a half century, a cache of photos
spurs sensitive research on Islam's holy text

By ANDREW HIGGINS

A TIME OF UNEXAMPLED PROSPERITY

by Washington Irving

Rampant speculation, bank blowouts, and panic on the stock exchange are not unavoidable “cyclical phenomena,” as some would have us believe.

Tim McGirk

When the Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary last year raising the possibility that archeologists had found the family tomb of Jesus Christ in the hills behind Jerusalem, it caused a huge backlash among Christians. The claim, after all, challenged one of the cornerstones of Christian faith — that Jesus, after his crucifixion, rose bodily to heaven in his physical form.

Science fiction and spy movies in which characters take truth potions, youth elixirs and different pills that give them superb physical strength may not be absolutely fictitious. Secret laboratories of intelligence services develop various drugs capable of either destroying or upgrading any person. Russia is not an exception at this point.

A scheme to redesign the venerable Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square as a museum of Pharaonic arts is getting the go-ahead, Nevine El-Aref reports

The UFO Area website says the astronauts are represented in rock paintings in Central Australia.

By Jerry Tenuto

After careful introspection as to how I might bridge the passage of 2007 to the hopefulness of a new and better 2008, I came upon the following epiphany:

None of us need a rehashing of what has been, in many regards, a thoroughly rotten year.

AIN TAMUR, Iraq (AFP) — No-one celebrated Christmas in Al-Aqiser church on Tuesday, for what many consider to be the oldest eastern Christian house of worship lies in ruins in a windswept Iraqi desert.

Ruins revealed by The Times in 1929 are found to be of ‘stunning international importance’

Dalya Alberge

One winter night a knight in shining armour appeared in a village. He entered a house and uttered: “The world is on the threshold of disaster. Millions of people will die. And you will stand here and prophesy. Do not be afraid! I’ll tell you what you should say.” This phantom visited 30-year-old Vangelia Pandeva Dimitrova in January, 1941.

President Al Gore and Lame Duck George W. Bush stood shoulder to shoulder, somewhat awkwardly, making a passing effort to appear comfortable.

Lafayette’s Visit to the United States, 1824-1825

by William Jones

As the American War for Independence was coming to a successful conclusion, a group of senior officers in the Continental Army set about to establish an institution, that would serve, both to commemorate those brave men who had led the struggle for independence from the British Empire, and as a guardian of the fragile Republic that had just been won

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

YEKATERINBURG, Russia — On the outskirts of this burly industrial center, off a road like any other, on a nowhere scrap of land — here unfolded the final act of one of the last century’s most momentous events.

Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Thanksgiving

By Robert Jensen

The Institut du monde arabe's current Phoenicians exhibition is a rare opportunity to revisit a little-understood Mediterranean civilisation, writes David Tresilian in Paris

An ambitious restoration project aimed at returning the mosque of Al-Zahir Baybars to its original glory was launched this week. Nevine El-Aref reports on the new project by the Ministry of Culture and the Kazakhstan government

In November, it might seem odd to run a summer feature on an apparent preserve of the rich and famous. As Mona Anis discovers, however, forward planning places Sardinia within reach

Al-Ahram Weekly reviews this well-illustrated publication written by archaeologist Charles Bonnet, former president of the International Nubiology Association, and Egyptologist Dominique Valbelle. It covers an important period of history that has so far been made known only in a fragmentary fashion and, in particular, describes the discovery of monumental black granite statues portraying the Pharaonic rulers of Egypt's 25th or "Nubian" Dynasty that lasted for 50 years from 720 to 671 BC.

The mummy of Tutankhamun went on public display on Sunday for the first time. Nevine El-Aref reports on the boy king's latest journey, from golden sarcophagus to plexi-glass case

The Khayrbek and Umm Al-Sultan Shaaban monumental complexes, two of the finest examples of Islamic mediaeval architecture in the Darb Al-Ahmar district of Cairo, have been restored. Nevine El-Aref was at the opening ceremony

Last month, Polish archaeologists celebrated an excavation tradition going back to Kazimierz Michalowski at Edfu in 1937, says Nevine El-Aref

As their countrymen prepared for national elections, Polish archaeologists celebrated 70 years of excavation and restoration in Egypt. Nevine El-Aref attended the opening of a special exhibition to mark the event

Christie's attempt to auction a painting by Mahmoud Said in Dubai that should have been hanging in the Egyptian Embassy in Washington focussed attention on the booming market for modern Egyptian art. Dena Rashed explores the seamier side of a growing business

Pot or marijuana has been around and in use by humans in one form or another for thousands of years. Its uses trace back many thousands of years to before recorded history. Here are a few of the places you might have encountered ancient stoners.

by Michael Sullivan

Did Climate Inspire the Birth of a Monster?

Writers are often influenced by their surroundings — but Indonesian volcanoes? Some researchers say that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein may have been inspired by the icy and dark summer of 1816, caused by the ashy eruption of Mount Tambora.

One town's strange journey from paranoia to pardon

By Jess Blumberg

The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the Devil's magic—and 20 were executed.

Ethiopia has started re-erecting its famed Axum obelisk 30 months after it returned to the country from Italy where it stayed for 70 years, a United Nations expert said on Wednesday.

The modern culture is abundant with stories about vampires. Film producers make many movies about vampire hunters every year, lots of books about vampirism and vampires appear regularly. Feeding on blood has become one of the top issues discussed at a variety of forums, especially of Gothic teenagers. What is the official medicinal opinion about vampires today?