road trip to ancient egypt

yesterday, eric and i found ourselves driving all the way from sydney to canberra (three hours one-way) to visit the national gallery of australia who has an exhibit on egyptian antiquities from the louvre (last day was yesterday so it was either that or go to louvre to the view the collection, we decided at this time it was more practical to drive to canberra :-P). since it was the last day, there were a lot of people in the exhibit starting from the queue to get the tickets (entrance is free in the gallery but you have to pay for the special exhibits) all the way to the actual exhibit itself. it started with a short film showing about what the exhibit is all about with an introduction from the director of the louvre museum himself. the exhibit was entitled: egyptian antiquities: journey to the afterlife. so it pretty much showed how the entire civilization of ancient egypt was based on religion and their belief in the rebirth after death. once inside, it was just amazing seeing all these artifacts from that time (photography wasn’t allowed so just take my word for it :-P). there were a lot of statues of their gods, plaques, chests, jars, amulets and some papyrus on display but the highlight of the exhibit was the actual coffins of mummies, some made from wood and some made from stone. the details on these coffins were just unbelievable. i can’t imagine the time and effort put into make these (not to mention the technology available of doing it at that time).

some facts about the exhibit:

* over two hundred objects went on show in an exhibition of egyptian antiquities from the musee du louvre in paris
* the first exhibition the louvre has sent to australia in nearly two decades
* many of the works are drawn from the permanent display of egyptian antiquities at the louvre, while others have never been on public display
* the egyptian collection is the second most visited collection at the louvre in paris, only being surpassed by the mona lisa
* the national gallery of australia in canberra will be the first gallery to display this magnificent collection.

going around the exhibit for a couple of hours sure made us hungry so we took this opportunity to pass by our favorite resto in canberra, belucci’s, to feast on some real good salad, pasta, risotto and panacotta before heading back home.