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| Horemheb, who wiped out the changes of the Amarna period. |
The
Pacific Science Center in Seattle will be hosting a traveling show of Egyptian wonders until January 6, and we were overjoyed to be able to see them! I remember not being able to get in to see the wonders of King Tut's tomb when they last left Cairo to tour the US, and was astonished to be able to get in without even purchasing advanced tickets. Entry is timed, and we needed to wait about an hour before our admission time. But there is lots to see at the museum. Our favorites were a live tropical butterfly exhibit that is not to be missed and a courtyard full of cool interactive water sculptures. The Egyptian show is marvelous. It helped immensely that we had studied ancient Egypt in enough depth that we all knew the names of nearly all of the former owners of these artifacts, and were suitably impressed. King Tut's famous golden mask was not there, but the mask of Psusennes was. Psusennes' tomb was discovered in 1940 by Pierre Montet, a French Egyptologist, and was one of three completely intact tombs he discovered. But WWII completely overshadowed his finds and they never became as famous as the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb.
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| Amenhotep III, father of Akenaten. |
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Hatshepsut, the famous
woman pharaoh. |
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| Senenmut and Neferure, Pharaoh Hatshepsut's chief advisor and daughter. Neferure has a traditional child's hairstyle, shaved except for a long lock on one side. |
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| Canoptic jar of Kiya, a secondary wife of Akhenaten. |
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Sarcophagus of the cat of Akhenaten's brother, Prince Thutmose. We thought this
was cool because we read a historical novel that featured this cat! |
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| Future pharaoh Ay and his wife Tey receiving a gold collar from Akhenaten. |
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| Akhenaten. |
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| A huge statue of Tutankhamun. |
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| A pectoral from the tomb of Sheshonq II, an intact tomb discovered by Pierre Montet. |
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A shabti of Tutanhamun. Spells were planned to
make it come to life as his servent in the afterlife. |
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| A chair of Tutankhamun. |
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| A canoptic sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. |
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| The gilded wooden base of an ostrich feather fan from Tutankhamun's tomb. |
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| A pectoral from Tutankhamun's mummy. |
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| Finger and toe covers from Tutankhamun's mummy. |
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| The shoes Tutankhamun was wearing. |
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| Amulets from Tut's mummy. |
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| A winged cobra collar from Tut's mummy. |
We loved the tropical butterfly exhibit. They do not raise the butterflies, and since they usually have a short lifespan, they purchase about 500 a week for the exhibit. They were all spectacularly colored.
Before heading home, we stopped by to admire the
Fremont Troll under the Aurora Bridge. Jasper thought he was awesome.
We visited
Gas Works Park, a really unique place created from the abandoned remains of a plant which once manufactured gas from coal. Part of the old structure remains dramatically on view but off limits to visitors. But an open-air building that once was an exhauster-compressor building is full of strange machinery that kids may explore. The park has amazing views of the downtown skyline and would be a superb place for a picnic or kite flying. Jasper couldn't get enough of the play area and wished he could have a park day there with his homeschool group!
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| Gas Works Park bathroom graffiti. |
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