Friday, February 25, 2011

Review of Cleopatra at Cincinatti Museum Center

The tour of the Cleopatra Exhibit at the Cindinatti Museum Center starts with a 6 minute film about Cleopatra and the underwater discovery of ancient artifacts from her time in Egypt.  Next as the movie screen lifts  you begin a 14 stop audio tour through the exhibit.  The audio tour is included with the ticket and the audiodevices worked very well.  In the audio Cleopatra speaks to you telling you about the history of her life, her children, the men in her life, and the battles with the Romans.

The exhibit includes 150 Egyptitan artifacts that included  Egyptian Coins, jewels, statues, and more.  My favorite were two 15ft tall statues, one of  a man and one of a woman that were recovered from the bottom of the ocean.  The statues were both cracked in a few places but they did an excellent job of piecing the statues back together.  The female statue is missing her right arm.   There is a video showing them being rescued from the ocean.

I learned the Cleopatra was a Ptolemy who spoke both Greek and Egyptian,.  She was a good student who studied History, medicine, and philosophy.  Cleopatra captured the heart of two of the most powerful men in the world, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

After being conquered by the Romans she committed suicide to avoid being embarassed in front of her people, Mark Antony did the same upon hearing about itAt the end of the exhibit there is a screen showing clips from movies about Cleopatra.  They include: 

1963 "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor

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1946 "Caesar and Cleopatra" with Viven Leigh



1934 "Cleopatra"with Claudette Colbert



1954


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2007  Leonor Varela

There are also paintings of Cleopatra at the very end of the Exhibit.   We really enjoyeod our visit to this exhibit and my son is already asking to go a second time!  The exhibit is at the Cincinatti museum center through Sept. 2011 so  you never know, we just may go back!

We also visited the Museum of Natural History and Science and my son really enjoyed the Science of Mummies exhibit.  For more information on the Cleopatra Exhibit please visit http://www.nationalgeographic.com/events/cleopatra/.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Unwrapped Mummy: Review of The Egypt Experience at the Toledo Museum of Art

My 8 year old son and his 9 year old friend had a blast and really enjoyed the Egypt Experience exhibit at th e Toledo Museum of Art.  The cost was $10 for adults and $5 for each child.    The exhibit had 2 mummies, alot of ancient artificats and a replica of a tomb.  One of the mummies is unwrapped from the shoulders up.  Upon close inspection my son noticed that the mummy is missing his pinky finger.  Hopefully he lost it after he died and not before.  One of the workers told us that the Libbeys, the family who had started the Art Museum,   had unwrapped the mummy in the 1930s.  Apparently the fashionable thing to do at the time was to have an "unwrapping" party with your mummy.  My son has always wondered what it looks like underneath all of the bandages the mummies are wrapped in so this was fascinating for him to see an unwrapped mummy.

The exhibit also contained a lots of walls with hieroglyphics, canopic jars, artwork, and other Egyptian items.  I though it was well laid out and very interesting.  At 7pm there was a free session where the kids could make Egyptian art, Egyptian collars, and crowns using hieroglyphic stencils, jewels, and other art supplies.  We all enjoyed making the art and the kids brought home some nice artwork.  At the end we visited the museum gift shop and got some Egypt themed gifts for the kids.

All 3 of us enjoyed our visit to the Egypt Experience at the Toledo Museum of Art.  I highly recommend it to anyone with school age kids.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

The Egypt Experience at the Toledo Museum of Art

We just learned about an Egyptian exhibit starting on Oct. 29, 2010 at the Toledo Museum of Art.  They will have an exhibit called The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb that will display 150 objects spanning 3,000 years of history.

There are also lots of mummy and Egypt related free activities for kids like lessons on hieroglyphics, a film about mummies, and sessions where kids can makes mummies and a sarcophagus. 

The tickets are reasonably priced ($10 adults and $5 for kids) so we plan to visit a several times so my son can participate in all of the fun activities for kids.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Welcome to My Kid Loves Mummies and Ancient Egypt

My 8 year old son is fascinated with ancient Egypt and mummies.  I have built this blog to document all of the mummy and ancient egypt related museums, exhibits, and other educational resources that I come across in my quest to satisfy his thirst for ancient Egypt and mummies.

When we travel we are always looking for museums with mummies or other ancient egypt and mummy related things for him to see. 

Additionally we have also seen some travelling exhibits like Tutankhamun at the childrens museium in Indianapolis in 2009. We will also be visiting the Mummies of The World when it comes to Milwaukee in 2011.

If your kid loves mummies as much as mine does then I am sure you will enjoy my blog.   Where have you taken your kid to see mummies?  Please let me know in the comments below.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Mummies in Ann Arbor Michigan

My son became very interested in mummies and anything related to ancient Egypt when he turned 6.   So I started doing alot of research to see if there were any mummies near where we live in Michigan.  I learned that the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology on the University of Michigan campus had a mummy in its collection.   At that time the museum was closed for renovations for a while.  Once it reopened we took my son there to visit and see the mummy.  He was very glad to see a mummy so close to home.