King Tut...

 I recently went with Jake's class on an outing to see the Tutankhamun exhibition, which is currently running at the Grand West Casino.  It was AMAZING and I just wish that we'd had a little more time to view the exhibits.  Being a school outing, our time was limited and the kids had a question sheet to complete, so they were on a mission.  There's SO much to see and it's a beautiful insight into how the ancient Egyptians lived and died.  Mostly died.  The grade 5s are studying ancient Egypt at the moment in History, so the exhibition tied in beautifully with their syllabus.

Jake and his friends discovering "new" wonders of the ancient world.  This is looking into the first of 4 golden tombs into which King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus was put...

 So much time was spent making these tombs beautiful - which is crazy, considering the fact that the ancient Egyptians never expected us to discover these tombs 3000 years after they were laid to rest!!  The hieroglyphics are so detailed, it's nuts to imagine that each picture represents something...

 These are the enclosures that King Tutankhamun's mummified body were placed, before going into the sarcophagus, which was a stone container, which was placed inside the 4 golden tombs.  So 4 gold boxes, 1 stone box and 4 of these sarcophagus' into which the mummy was eventually placed...

 Everything was symbolic - Jake would be better at explaining than me...

 Some of the art work on the sarcophagus...

 Those funny little heads over there are called Canopic Jars.  That's where they put the person's innards when they prepare the body for mummification.  They in turn are also put into a sarcophagus box thing.  That's protected by a row of cobras, which are supposed to provide protection...

 This is King Tut's throne...  The picture is of him and his wife.  It was quite sad actually, he died when he was 18 and they found a body of both a fetus and a baby - he had his fair share of sadness...

 One last one of two of the sarcophagus'...

I really recommend this outing for anyone interested in ancient Egypt, it was brilliantly put together.  Just lots of reading/listening, so maybe not for the littlies.

Love Sue XXX