King Tut visits Atlanta

Today I took advantage of a beautiful day off to drive down to Atlanta with friends. Our objective was to visit the King Tut exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center - and it seemed like everyone in the greater metro area had the same idea! It was incredibly crowded - even with our 11am timed entrance, we didn't get in until 11:30!

The exhibit is only visiting four US cities: Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco and Indianapolis. The exhibit itself consists pretty much of "smaller" objects from the famous tomb - many small statues and jewelry. There were a few "significant" pieces - Tut's bed, several huge statues, and several pieces that had never traveled outside Egypt before. A lot of the exhibit focuses on the Pharaohs and their lives, especially those who pre-date Tut.

I really enjoyed the exhibit. Some of the jewelry was exquisite (they had tiny wrists, judging by the bracelets) - including some HUGE earrings! It was interesting to see photos of the tomb itself posted next to the real artifacts depicted in the photos. Only one cat, though - a cat sarcophagus.

Of course, the gift shop yielded a lot of laughs - incredibly overpriced, tacky souvenirs. Like:

Cleocatra??

Or:
I hadn't realized that they played baseball back on the banks of the Nile! It reminded me of the Steve Martin parody, "King Tut"

"He gave his life for tourism"

On the way home, we stopped at Trader Joe's and I am now well-stocked with Two Buck Chuck!