The wonderful three-day weekend has come and gone - but it blessedly seemed to pass in a nice, slow and gentle way instead of feeling like it completely sped by in a blink! The weekend started off a little rainy with some storms and ended a little rainy, but the weather in between was absolutely lovely with warm days and Spring breezes.
Friday after work, we kicked off our three-day weekend with dinner at Brix 27 in Martinsburg! We initially headed to check out the Moose Lodge in Martinsburg and while it looked so nice from the outside, inside it was dim & dank - and we decided pretty quickly (really - Ryan did) that we'd go elsewhere and my husband ended up cruising us over to Brix 27.
Brix 27 is a great little spot with really divine food and drinks! We had a delicious meal, popped by our house to see the progress that was being made (we have a roof!) and then grabbed mini blizzards from DQ before heading home! It was a lovely little date night and a great start to the weekend!
Saturday morning was a FULL day - we got up and set out for DC shortly after 8:30. Our first destination was the Rhode Island Center to see the exhibit: Tutankhamun - His Tomb & His Treasures.. which was an absolute dream for me! The exhibit was all about the discovery of King Tut's tomb, with details aplenty about the discovery and the exhibition of the treasures found within the tomb! I was also thrilled that there was tons of parking at the Rhode Island Center - for the low price of $3 - which is like finding a unicorn in downtown DC!
The initial portion of the exhibit was all about the different kingdoms that made up the Egyptian civilization, the history of burying pharaohs in pyramids and how they gradually turned toward different tombs, like those in the Valley of the Kings. I wish we'd known once we went into the room to watch the video about Howard Carter & the discovery of the tomb, we could not backtrack... because I'd have gone back and read some more! But one of the guides was very quick to let us know we could NOT go backward... so on we went!
The tour took you through the lay out of the tomb - first showing the goods found in the antechamber of the tomb: thrones, chariots, food for the afterlife, statues, dishes, life-size statues of King Tut, the list goes on and on... and then the Coffin Room, where King Tut's four coffins were stored like Russian nesting dolls inside a sarcophagus that was then nestled into four shrines; each one covered in gold leaf. The final portion of the tomb complex was the Treasury room, which contained the canopic jars that held Tut's organs, boats, jewels, tools and items to be used in the afterlife.
Once you reviewed the layouts and some of the items, you headed down a hallway seeing each of the four shrines that encased the sarcophagus - in descending order. Each one was elaborately decorated with plaster hieroglyphs that had been overlaid with gold leaf and the floor of the largest shrine had an outline of the layout of all the other shrines that were contained within it. I was tickled to take pictures with the shrines and get so close to them (they were surely recreations - but who cares).
The walls were lined with the panels that were painted on the walls of the tomb - as they were found. Images of Tut meeting gods and goddesses like Isis, Hathor, Anubis and Set... just to name a few. Ryan and I had fun trying to find a depiction of his tattoo on the shrines; he has the Eye of Ra tattooed on his hand and sure enough, we found it several places, but the most obvious was on the side of shrine three. Of course we had to take a picture, ha-ha!
After perusing each of the four shrines, we arrived at the stone sarcophagus that would have held the coffin(s). The sarcophagus had winged goddesses on each corner and honestly; I can't begin to imagine how hard it would have been to life the lid off all these things! Within the sarcophagus were not one - not two - not three but four coffins that held the body of the pharaoh and each one was extremely fancy! The outer coffin was made of solid gold, while the three interiors coffins were made of gold and precious stones; each one worth a small fortune on it's own.
Sealed within the four coffins was the mummified body of King Tut - which wasn't in the best of shape. Wrapped around the body, within the linen bandages of the mummy's wrappings were up to 125 small trinkets: amulets, jewels and other small items meant to be used in the afterlife. And laid on top of the face of the mummy was King Tut's golden death mask; which has become one of the most recognizable, if not the most recognizable symbol of ancient Egypt and the pharaohs.
The latter portion of the exhibit contained jewels, headdresses, golden sandals (yes please) and even solid gold caps for the pharaoh's fingers and toes! There were the canopic jars, numerous thrones, shields and a chariot that was gilded with gold. There were also small coffins, which revealed that King Tut had two daughters - one who was born early at around five months into the pregnancy and the other who died at birth. Both baby girls had been lovingly wrapped and placed alongside their father, in their own golden caskets.
The exhibit was absolutely fascinating and I so enjoyed taking the time to wander around, listen to all the information and read the plaques, learning even more about something I've been fascinated with for such a long time. It was a really well done exhibit - even if there was the hiccup with not being able to go back and peruse some more. The gift shop was surprisingly sparse, but that was fine because it meant that I didn't find anything I couldn't live without, ha-ha!
This was only the first half of our wonderful three-day weekend - I'll share the other portion tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment