ニュース記事

High turnout of visitors during the first days of the “Ramses and Gold of the Pharaohs” exhibition at De Young Museum in San Francisco.

Large number of visitors flocked to see the great Egyptian antiquities.

During the first days of its opening, the exhibition witnessed a large turnout of visitors of different age groups.

The exhibition of “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” includes 181 artifacts that highlight some of the distinctive characteristics of the ancient Egyptian civilization, especially in the Middle and Modern eras until the late era, through a group of statues, ornaments, cosmetics, paintings, stone blocks decorated with inscriptions, and statues of some deities in the form of birds and animals in addition to some colorful wooden coffins.

The De Young Museum in San Francisco, USA, witnessed the opening of the traveling exhibition “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” at its second stop.

It had previously been exhibited at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences; nearly 8,000 tickets of the exhibit have been sold so far.

The exhibition includes 181 artifacts from the era of King “Ramses II” stemming from the collections of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, in addition to artifacts unearthed by the Egyptian mission in the Bubasteum in Saqqara.

It is worth mentioning that The exhibition of “Ramses & The Gold of The Pharaohs” welcomed visitors from all over the American city of Houston to enjoy the splendor of the great Egyptian antiquities with the enchanting melodies of the harp instrument in the background.

During the first days of its opening, the exhibition witnessed a huge turnout of visitors from different age groups. Some 8000 tickets were booked and sold in the first hours of the exhibition’s opening day.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri explained that an Egyptian delegation representing the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities had received the visitors, who expressed their fascination with the greatness of the Egyptian civilization.

For her part, Assistant Minister for Tourism Promotion Lamia Kamel said that the Egyptian pavilion at the exhibition also witnessed a great turnout from the museum visitors, who used the QR code shown on the main panel in the pavilion to access the promotional site for Egypt on various social media platforms, in order to get acquainted with the brilliance of the Egyptian tourist destinations and Egypt’s countless tourism products.

Kamel confirmed that the visitors of the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences expressed their enthusiasm to visit Egypt, especially in winter.

Moreover, Kamel reviewed the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, to create a direct flight route between Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor to link beach tourism with cultural tourism, within the framework of the ministries’ efforts to create an integrated tourism product.

It is worth noting that the “Ramses & The Gold of The Pharaohs” exhibition showcases 181 artifacts that highlight some of the distinctive characteristics of the ancient Egyptian civilization, especially from the Middle and Modern Kingdoms to the late era. The exhibits include a group of statues, ornaments, paintings, stone blocks decorated with inscriptions, and statues of deities in the form of birds and animals, as well as some colorful wooden coffins.

Also, the Egyptian pavilion in the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences will be broadcast Egypt’s grand celebration “The Sphinx Avenue ” that will take place on November 25 at 7:30 p.m.

They’re the most dangerous creatures to have ever roamed the planet – dinosaurs have been a source of fascination for both the young and old for centuries. And now London’s ExCeL Centre will see them come to life in our city, as Jurassic World’s jaw-dropping exhibition opens its doors in the UK for the very first time.

Fans of the blockbuster films will be able to see the thrilling beasts up close as they step into a world of discovery inside the ferocious dinosaur’s domain. From a life-sized velociraptor to a towering Brachiosaurus, and even the Tyrannosaurus Rex. The dinosaurs are more real than ever before.

Visitors will be able to watch them move, roar and even feed as they come to life in a 20,000 sq ft space. Park rangers will also be on the premises to guide adventurers around the huge Jurassic Park – but they should watch out for the fierce beasts lurking behind every shrub or forest path.

In addition to experiencing the world inspired by the beloved films, exhibition guests will be able to pose for one-of-a-kind “Instagram-able” photo moments throughout the event. There will also be an interactive dig site where youngsters can become palaeontologists for the day and scavenge for dinosaur bones and remains.

James Cassidy, COO of FKP Scorpio Entertainment UK says: “The entire Jurassic World: The Exhibition experience has been designed to be as immersive as possible for visitors. From the moment our guests walk through the doors, all the sights and sounds of the event will be geared towards fueling the experience of being in the dinosaurs’ domain.

“The Jurassic Dominion movie came out quite recently and the entire exhibition has been organised in collaboration with its creative film team, and it will be held in collaboration with Universal studios and NBC. All of our dinosaurs are animatronic so they move and hiss on their own – guests can go up to them and touch them as well as get plenty of selfie opportunities.”

Jurassic World: The Exhibition tour has previously taken major cities across the world such as Chicago, Philadelphia, Paris, Madrid and Seoul, Shanghai and Chengdu by storm. A record-breaking number of tickets have already been sold for the London event.

The exhibition will be open from Thursday, August 25, until the end of 2022. It will provide the ideal day out for both children and adults across the city and elsewhere in the UK, who are seeking an unforgettable experience.

Tickets for the Jurassic World: The Exhibition start at £26 per adult and £18.50 per child. Car parking will be available on-site and visitors can also travel to the ExCeL Centre directly on the London Underground via the new Elizabeth Line.

To buy tickets for Jurassic World: The Exhibition at London’s ExCeL Centre, visit the website here.

What’s there to discover?

As well as seeing lots of giant species throughout the day, there will be plenty of opportunities for families to interact with incredible baby dinosaurs. This includes “Bumpy” from the hit Netflix series Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, which premiered in 2020 and released season 4 in December 2021.

Fans will even have the chance to play Jurassic World Alive – the popular location-based AR mobile game. In the game, dinosaurs are back on Earth and they roam free in our world.

Players can explore their surroundings to find their favourite Jurassic World characters. The app is available to download for free on the App Store and Google Play.

When the exhibition opens, players who visit ExCeL London and open the game on their device can locate an exclusive Jurassic World: The Exhibition incubator, which are capsules that contain valuable resources to use as an in-game reward.

Those who want to relax after walking the perilous path housing Jurassic World’s ancient beasts will be able to buy refreshments from a range of food and drink outlets in the ExCeL Centre. There are plenty of restaurants and cafés to choose from.

Film fans will also be able to purchase souvenirs from the full merchandise retail store on site, including t-shirts, stationary and more, as a memory of their incredible experience of visiting the dinosaurs’ domain.

To buy tickets for Jurassic World: The Exhibition at London’s ExCeL Centre, visit the website here.

Ever heard that story where a group of people are trapped in a park and faced with surviving some very ferocious pre-historical predators that have broken free?

Well, dino lovers across the city can relive that iconic storyline from today, as ‘Jurassic World: The Exhibition’ opens. The ExCel centre in Docklands is welcoming thousands of explorers through the famous Jurassic Park gates where they will be greeted by life-size, animatronic dinosaurs and their (extremely cute) babies. Only this time, they’re not likely to chase you and then dismember you.

The 20,000-square-foot exhibition holds 16 life-sized dinosaurs, including a velociraptor, brachiosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex. Curious explorers can interact with the dinosaurs, which are mechanical puppets that are deceptively lifelike. It’s a timewarp, where you can envision what prehistoric life on earth was like 140 million years ago, before the dinos became extinct… just in the ExCel centre.

This summer, the blockbuster season continues with the release of ‘Jurassic World Dominion’, the sixth instalment of the ‘Jurassic Park’ franchise, 30 years after the original movie. Okay, we reckon it’s shit, but the idea remains sound.

So, as you wait for the next film to drop, why not pay a visit to the dinos and keep them company? Tell them we said ‘roar!’.

‘Jurassic World: The Exhibition’, Excel London, Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1XL. From £25 per adult and £18.50 per child.

Find tickets here.

《侏罗纪世界》展览登陆英国伦敦，让影迷们沉浸式地体验电影里的场景，还能和会动的恐龙们进行互动。

摆脱禁锢的霸王龙朝围观者愤怒嘶吼；从大门进入，迎接游客的还有一只巨型腕龙。

这个庞大的展览空间里展示着侏罗纪电影里的所有事物，按照真实比例打造的电子动态恐龙结合音效和灯光，给人营造一种身临其境的感觉。

英国《侏罗纪世界》展览发起人乔治伍德说：“你真的会感觉，这是你最接近活恐龙的一次，也是这个体验最棒的地方。”

恐龙幼崽在器皿里休息，表皮纹路和呼吸节奏都几近逼真。现场不仅有各类恐龙，游客还能戴上手套触摸恐龙粪便，让大人小孩都乐在其中。

一名游客赛雷尔拉朱说：“他差不多两岁，非常喜欢这里。他出乎意料的非常冷静，但也很享受。”

英国儿童电台主持人康纳奈特说：“我们终于能亲身体验、感受、触摸恐龙，了解它们的皮肤、骨骼和一切。现象级的，非常棒！太好了！虽然也有点可怕。”

原定展出到11月的侏罗纪世界展，可能展延到当地假期结束。

The De Young Museum in San Francisco, USA, witnessed the opening of the traveling exhibition “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs” at its second stop.

It had previously been exhibited at the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences; nearly 8,000 tickets of the exhibit have been sold so far.

The exhibition includes 181 artifacts from the era of King “Ramses II” stemming from the collections of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, in addition to artifacts unearthed by the Egyptian mission in the Bubasteum in Saqqara.

It is worth mentioning that The exhibition of “Ramses & The Gold of The Pharaohs” welcomed visitors from all over the American city of Houston to enjoy the splendor of the great Egyptian antiquities with the enchanting melodies of the harp instrument in the background.

During the first days of its opening, the exhibition witnessed a huge turnout of visitors from different age groups. Some 8000 tickets were booked and sold in the first hours of the exhibition’s opening day.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri explained that an Egyptian delegation representing the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities had received the visitors, who expressed their fascination with the greatness of the Egyptian civilization.

For her part, Assistant Minister for Tourism Promotion Lamia Kamel said that the Egyptian pavilion at the exhibition also witnessed a great turnout from the museum visitors, who used the QR code shown on the main panel in the pavilion to access the promotional site for Egypt on various social media platforms, in order to get acquainted with the brilliance of the Egyptian tourist destinations and Egypt’s countless tourism products.

Kamel confirmed that the visitors of the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences expressed their enthusiasm to visit Egypt, especially in winter.

Moreover, Kamel reviewed the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, in cooperation with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, to create a direct flight route between Sharm El-Sheikh and Luxor to link beach tourism with cultural tourism, within the framework of the ministries’ efforts to create an integrated tourism product.

It is worth noting that the “Ramses & The Gold of The Pharaohs” exhibition showcases 181 artifacts that highlight some of the distinctive characteristics of the ancient Egyptian civilization, especially from the Middle and Modern Kingdoms to the late era. The exhibits include a group of statues, ornaments, paintings, stone blocks decorated with inscriptions, and statues of deities in the form of birds and animals, as well as some colorful wooden coffins.

Also, the Egyptian pavilion in the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences will be broadcast Egypt’s grand celebration “The Sphinx Avenue ” that will take place on November 25 at 7:30 p.m.

Concepts of spectacle and immersion have gotten a bad rap lately in the art world. Believe me, I understand.

When a dazzling presentation comes at the cost of curatorial substance, it’s not only disappointing, it fails to honor the subject. The term “immersive experience” has also become such a cliche that many of us cringe when we spot the words in the description of a new exhibition.

But when the concepts are used intelligently, they make museum-going more immediate, more educational and sometimes more complete.

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” the newly arrived exhibition at the de Young Museum that opened Saturday, Aug. 20, benefits from all the enhancements spectacle and immersion can offer. The touring exhibition was curated by Zahi Hawass, the famed Egyptian archaeologist and former minister of state for antiquities affairs, and comes to San Francisco in partnership with the Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is produced by World Heritage Exhibitions, a subsidiary of Cityneon Holdings. The exhibition is overseen at the de Young by Renée Dreyfus, the George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Curator and the person in charge of ancient art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

You like King Tut? You should get to know Ramses the Great, now in S.F.

With its set-like exhibition design, dramatically backlit photo blowups, use of video elements, evocative soundtrack and moody lighting, it is as much a theatrical experience as a museum visit. It’s easy to get swept up in the drama, as though carried pleasantly on the tides of the Nile.

Ramses II (1303-1213 B.C.) reigned for 67 years as the third pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty of Egypt. His time on the throne was marked by distinguished military campaigns, along with building projects like the Ramesseum temple complex at Qurna and the Abu Simbel temple complex near the Egypt-Sudan border. He is also thought to be the pharaoh depicted in the Old Testament story of Moses by some historians.

Immediately upon entering, visitors are plunged into his world, starting with a slick introductory video that explains his reign, and also the looting of his tomb in the Valley of the Kings — providing context to why artifacts from other royal tombs in Dahshur and Tanis are featured. After the video, the doors to the exhibition open as if by decree of the gods, bringing you face to face with a spectacular head of the ruler taken from a colossal statue.

Forms of Egyptian revival have been seen through the ages in the West, seemingly coming back into vogue with major archaeological discoveries and excavations. Gazing at objects like a gold Heset Ewer pitcher for liquid offerings in the temple, alabaster kohl jars, intricately colored Faience tiles depicting captives from military campaigns and numerous statues of the sphinx, one sees just how much movements like Neoclassicism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco have been inspired by the simple forms and intricate detailing of the New Kingdom era.

Throughout the exhibition, you enter the different worlds of Ramses’ time. It can be almost theme-park-like, in the best possible way.

With so much of Ramses’ story told in monumental buildings and works of sculpture that cannot tour, the design helps fill many of those gaps. Adjacent galleries showcase how tried-and-true exhibition tools are still effective, with a model of the great temple at Abu Simbel and its epic statues of the ruler on display. A nearby viewing room features a digital re-creation of the Battle of Kadesh that feels 3-D in its use of both conventional, wall-mounted screens and a flat viewing surface below it in the shape of a burnt papyrus map that shows the topography of the battleground and displays additional images. Later re-creations of tombs are also beautiful in their own artistry.

But when presenting objects like the stunning dynastic jewelry, the exhibition design lets the gold headpieces, bracelets, amulets and neckpieces speak for themselves. When you have items like the gold face mask of Sheshonq II, it doesn’t need anything extra. This is also true for the stone sarcophagi and the intricately painted, gilded wood interior coffins. And naturally, no exhibition on ancient Egypt would be complete without mummies, represented in “Ramses” by numerous preserved animals.

Upstairs in the museum’s Piazzoni Murals Room, the virtual reality experience “Ramses and Nefertari: Journey to Osiris” is available at an extra cost. See the exhibition first, then take the 10-minute “tour” through Abu Simbel, guided by the apparition of the pharaoh’s beloved wife, Nefertari. It’s a nice additional component after learning the basics about the ruler, but its motion and fragrance components might not be suitable for all museumgoers; some of the imagery may also be too frightening for children.

I left the show not only astounded by its presentation and objects, but also truly awed by the artistic and cultural accomplishments of the pharaoh’s reign. It’s an exhibition that proves when spectacle and immersion are given a subject with the depth of Ramses II, they can be truly in the service of greater understanding.

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs”: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Opens Saturday, Aug. 20. On view through Feb. 12. $20-$40. “Ramses and Nefertari: Journey to Osiris” tickets are $18 general admission, $16 members. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. 415-750-3600. deyoung.famsf.org

Among the almost 200 opulent ancient Egyptian artifacts in the new exhibition “Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” curator Zahi Hawass says he’s been transfixed by one sculpture: an 8-foot-tall, red granite head of Ramses II dating to the 13th century B.C.

The commanding visage of Egypt’s most influential New Kingdom ruler, wearing the iconic white crown of Upper Egypt and a chin-strapped false beard, originally topped a colossal statue in a Memphis, Egypt, temple. Discovered there in 1888, the deified pharaoh’s likeness now greets visitors entering the de Young Museum’s immersive 12,000-square foot installation, opening Saturday, Aug. 20. The exhibition explores the reign of one of Egypt’s most powerful and longest-ruling monarchs; Ramses the Great ruled for 67 years and lived past age 90, a rare life span in the ancient world.

It’s the greatest collection of Ramses II objects ever to travel to the United States, including numerous items never loaned outside Egypt — sarcophagi, royal masks, sculpture, recently discovered animal mummies, amulets and magnificent jewelry — as well as a virtual reality component installed in the museum’s Piazzoni Murals Room.

Review: ‘Ramses the Great’ show in S.F. uncovers the ‘fine art’ in immersive experiences

“I really love that statue at the beginning of the exhibit,” an exuberant Hawass told The Chronicle by phone from Los Angeles before his trip to San Francisco, where he plans to give a free public lecture on Saturday. “When I look at his face, I imagine that I am talking to Ramses II. In fact, when I wrote the (exhibition) catalog, which includes more personal stories, it was as if Ramses was here in front of me, talking to me, telling me his story himself.

“He told me he was not just a ruler but a philosopher, a warrior, a peacemaker,” the famed archeologist and Egyptoloist continued, “a man who was so in love with Nefartari as a young man, he built for her the most beautiful tomb ever made for a queen.”

Now, if anyone else were to recount in such breathless fervor an imaginary conversation with the 3,000-year-old pharaoh known as Ozymandias in Greek texts, whose mummified body rests in Cairo’s National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, we might rightly question their hold on reality. But it somehow makes sense for a nostalgic showman like Hawass, whose career since working as a young inspector at the great pyramids has been guided by an unquenchable curiosity and sense of connection with Egypt’s epic past.

“When I heard a Ramses exhibition would be available to travel here, I jumped at the opportunity,” said Renee Dreyfus, de Young’s curator in charge of ancient art.

Hawass, former secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, is best known in the U.S. from his frequent television appearances on the Discovery Channel, Fox and the History Channel (“Chasing Mummies”). There seems to scarcely be media coverage involving ancient Egypt without Hawass’ involvement. He’s filmed CT scans of King Tut’s remains and his 2010 discovery of the tombs of the Khufu pyramid builders.

A man in perpetual motion at 75, Hawass hasn’t slowed a bit in spreading the gospel of Egypt’s past grandeur.

“I’m giving 23 lectures in America next May,” he gushed.

He also rattled off a dizzying number of current ventures, including a new project working in the tomb of Ramses II in the Valley of the Kings (which was plundered in ancient times, and suffered numerous subsequent floods), and overseeing the ambitious Grand Egyptian Museum set to open later this year in Giza.

But he said he keeps in mind that every exhibition he works on aims to tell a distinct story about Egypt’s glorious past.

“Ramses the Great” is about the “king of kings who signed human history’s first peace treaty (with the Hittites),” Hawass explained. “He left his name everywhere,” inscribed on monuments and temples throughout Egypt, from the Nile delta to the Nubian Desert.

While King Tut’s gold-and-jewel-encrusted artifacts may be more iconic due to the stroke of fate that kept his burial chamber from flooding, the boy king who died at 19 was far from the most consequential pharaoh, Hawass noted.

“The two most famous Egyptian kings are, first, Ramses II, and second, King Tut,” he said. “I believe this (exhibition) is one of the most important things ever to leave Egypt to travel abroad. It is educational, but it is also breathtaking. It will capture the hearts of young people.”

Dreyfus said the timing to spark renewed interest in ancient Egypt couldn’t be better, with the Ramses show to still be on view at the de Young on Nov. 4, a date marking 100 years since Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tutankhamun’s intact tomb.

“What I’ve tried to do over the years, including the last King Tut show in 2009, is to bring the finest Egyptian objects to San Francisco to satisfy this city’s great love of Egyptian art,” said Dreyfus about the popularity of the Egyptian exhibitions, noting that the 1979 King Tut show — also curated by Hawass — attracted more than 1.3 million visitors.

“There is something hauntingly interesting about people who truly believed (in an afterlife), that you could take it with you, and that the next world would be equally good, if not better.”

“Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs”: 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Opens Saturday, Aug. 20. On view through Feb. 12, 2023. $25-$40. De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, S.F. 415-750-3600. deyoung.famsf.org

Ancient Art Council Lecture on Recent Egypt Discoveries with Zahi Hawass: 2 p.m. Saturday. Koret Auditorium. This is a free program on the exhibition’s opening day. Seating is limited and unassigned. Tickets are distributed on a first-come, first-served basis in front of the Koret Auditorium an hour before the presentation begins. Lecture tickets do not include admission to the exhibition. For more information, visit deyoung.famsf.org/calendar.

Ramses the Great was the most powerful, most celebrated pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

A talented military leader, he ushered in a golden era of security and prosperity and built a never-before-seen number of monuments, temples, and colossal statues (mostly dedicated to himself) across his kingdom. By the time of his death 67 years after assuming the throne, there were few in Egypt who’d ever known another ruler.

Three thousand years later, Ramses the Great’s legacy still looms large, and the artifacts associated with his reign are among Egypt’s most treasured heritage. On Friday, August 19th, 181 of them make their debut in San Francisco for the first time in the de Young Museum’s new exhibition, Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs.

The exhibition, however, is more than just a set of beautiful objects. Using virtual reality and multimedia, it brings to life the most important events and places of Ramses’ rule.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” says Thomas P. Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “It’s truly an immersive experience that engages all the senses with muscle.”

The artifacts on display in Ramses the Great range from stone cartouches and life-sized statues to delicate jewelry and exquisitely detailed coffins. In one room, an unusual collection of animal mummies that were recently discovered in the ancient city of Memphis—cats, lion cubs, mongoose, crocodiles, and scarab beetles—appear for the first time ever. In another, they recreate the crypt of Sennedjem, a royal artist and the builder of Ramses’ own tomb, surrounding his real, lavishly painted coffin with images of the afterlife projected on the walls and ceiling; these images are the same as those that were found painted in the actual tomb.

Elsewhere, a multi-platform presentation illuminates what ancient scholars consider the largest, most chaotic battle ever fought, the Battle of Kadesh, which Ramses the Great won in 1274 B.C. just a few years after assuming the throne. The epic assault takes place across three screens that combine cinematic views of the combat with shifting imagery of the battlefield.

But the most exciting multimedia element of Ramses the Great is the 10-minute virtual reality component, Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris, installed in the Piazzoni Mural Rooms upstairs. With noise-canceling headphones, VR goggles, and a spinning, tilting, rumbling chair, visitors follow Ramses’ first wife Nefertari on a tour of her husband’s most impressive monuments, Abu Simbel and Nefertari’s Tomb. The temple and crypt appear like they would have at the time of their construction, immensely detailed and convincingly real. The makers even threw in a bit of extra drama to keep things interesting.

“The temples [Ramses] erected, statues he commissioned, and monuments he inscribed throughout Egypt and Nubia, and funerary temple and royal tomb he built, were reminders of his earthly power and closeness to the gods,” says Renee Dreyfus, George and Judy Marcus Distinguished Curator and curator in charge of ancient art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. With VR, visitors get the chance to experience what moving through those spaces was like thousands of years in the past.

// Both Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs and Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris will be on exhibition from August 20th through February 12th, 2023. Timed entry tickets can be purchased in advance and there is an extra charge, $18/person, for the VR experience; De Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr. (Golden Gate Park), deyoung.famsf.org.

The VR experience “Ramses and Nefertari: Journey to Osiris.”

Thousands of years before the ’49ers descended upon San Francisco in the hopes of unearthing a fortune in the mountains of California, a living god half a world away was laid to rest in The Valley of the Kings with a cache of gold that all but the most fortunate prospecters could have only dreamed of.

“Ramses the Great and The Gold of the Pharaohs,” opening Aug. 20 at the de Young Museum, showcases this royal mother lode in one of the largest exhibitions of ancient Egyptian splendor to come to the West Coast since the de Young’s “King Tut” exhibits—which captivated local museum goers in 1979 and 2009.

The exhibit features 181 artifacts lent to the de Young by the Egyptian government. It includes priceless relics found at the tomb of the powerful Pharaoh Ramses II, along with animal mummies, intricate jewerly and recently uncovered burial objects from the ancient cities of Dashur and Tanis along the Nile River. Present day Egyptologists continue to excavate and unearth new treasures.

The collection has been billed as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to see the “greatest collection of Ramses II objects and Egyptian jewelry ever to travel to the United States”—and the hype is not without merit.

In recent decades, evolutions in international law and curatorial codes of ethics have made exhibitions like “Ramses the Great” increasingly difficult to coordinate. All of the objects currently on display at the de Young are on a short-term special loan from Egypt—approved by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and the Supreme Council of Antiquities of the Arab Republic of Egypt. They are not likely to leave their country of origin again for a long time after this world tour ends in 2025.

But “Ramses the Great” is more than a rare chance to see Egyptian treasures. It is also a cutting-edge display of applied technology. The highly choreographed experience features state-of-the-art lighting, sound and multimedia equipment—and includes a virtual reality tour of two of Egypt’s most impressive monuments (tickets to this cost extra).

With all there is to see and experience, you may feel overwhelmed by it all. To help you better appreciate “Ramses the Great and The Gold of the Pharaohs” here are eight essential takeaways—from easily recognizing a Pharaoh and quickly understanding Egyptian seating arrangements to avoiding the nausea some experience while strapped into a VR headset. Read on to prepare yourself to walk through the show like an Egyptian.

The King is King

With few exceptions, artistic depictions of the pharaohs remained the same for 3,000 years. But while the people of ancient Egypt were familiar with the uniform aesthetic, modern museum goers would do well to keep a few things in mind.

For starters, ancient Egyptian artists often put the king’s head on the body of a lion to form a sphinx. Also, the patriarchy was just as real then as it is today: All pharaohs, no matter their actual sex or gender, were depicted as male.

Finally, keep an eye out for some of these key pieces of royal regalia:

• Triangular royal kilt, with an ornamental bull’s tail.
• Emblematic crown with a sacred cobra, uraeus, at the forehead. The nemes, the most common headdress, has black and gold stripes framing the face and hanging to the shoulders.
• False rectangular beard.
• Hand held scepters, crook and flails or an ankh (symbol for life).

Size Matters

Size indicates relative importance. Pharaohs are often rendered larger than life to symbolize their authority and superhuman powers. In wall reliefs and paintings, workers and entertainers, flora and fauna, and architectural details are subsidiary and usually shown in smaller scale than the figures of the gods, kings, high officials or landowners.

Walk Like an Egyptian

Why did the ancient Egyptian paintings depict people in such stilted and stiff poses? The key is to think of these paintings as a composite established hieroglyphic forms, which were never intended to be naturalistic representations. The views of the body come from different perspectives: the eye and shoulders from the front; torso and hips from three-quarter view; head, feet, legs and arms in profile.

Take a Seat

Seated figures are almost certainly of a higher social status than anyone shown standing or working. Gods, goddesses, kings and scribes are often depicted as sitting. Scribes were part of an elite group of individuals who knew over 700 hieroglyphs. The elevation of these select writers attests to the importance of writing and literacy in Egypt. A scribe is usually seated with a papyrus scroll on his lap.

Stoned Poses

Egyptian sculptors seldomly completely freed the figure from the stone block. With few exceptions they did not carve out the space around the legs or between a figure’s body and arms due to the stone’s brittleness. Artists left that negative space filled in so the sculpture stayed intact.This technique provided not only with a desired longevity but also resulted in a very centered, calm, poised and motionless pose.

Colorful Patterns

Jewelry, sculpture, wall paintings and coffins are enriched with patterns and bright colors. Egyptians adored patterns—not only because they are pleasing to the eye, but because they could go on and on without end and thus served as a potent symbol for eternal life. Colors also had both aesthetic appeal and symbolic meaning for ancient Egyptians:

• Yellow & Gold = Sun and Ra, the Sun God
• Red & Orange = Desert, power, blood and vitality
• Blue & Green = Water, the Nile River and vegetation
• White = Lotus flower and purity
• Black = Death and resurrection

As Good As Gold

Mined along the Nile River and the Eastern Desert of Egypt, gold was prized for its color and sheen. Since it does not rust, gold served as a metaphor for eternal life. The Egyptians’ love of gold has never been a secret, and royal Egyptian burial sites have been a target for grave robbers for millennia. As such, exhibits like “Ramses the Great” are particularly noteworthy; by the time modern museums started seeking out ancient Egyptian relics, much of the gold beneath the sand was long gone.

In recent years, Western museums have been forced to reckon with the role they have played in encouraging, enabling and profiting from ancient plunder. In an effort to right historical wrongs, the UNESCO 1970 Convention, a permanent intergovernmental committee, oversees the return and restitution of cultural property and takes measures to prohibit the import, export or transfer ownership of objects from the country of origin.

Don’t Skip The VR Tour

Tucked away in a side room on the ground floor of the de Young, the “Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris” virtual reality tour is available to visitors for an additional $18. Donning a VR headset and headphones, viewers are invited to sit in an articulating chair that twists, turns, rumbles and even occasionally releases the scent of frankincense. The experience is not recommended for small children and a disclaimer on the de Young’s website warns that it may induce anxiety and vertigo in some participants. However, the virtual tour does an impressive job of conveying the scale and grandeur of these ancient Egyptian sites without the price or stress of intercontinental travel. It is well worth the extra charge. Pro tip: closing your eyes while swooping through narrow hallways can help viewers avoid feeling nauseous.

Ramses the Great and The Gold of the Pharaohs

de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr.
Aug. 20 Through Feb. 12, 2023 | $23+ ($16-$18 additional for VR experience)

Grab your tickets now and start counting down the days, Jurassic World: The Exhibition will be inviting the public into a prehistoric paradise next week.

Lace your boots, pull on your khaki shorts and don your safari hat, the opening of Jurassic World: The Exhibition is only days away. Next week, you can step through the screen into the universe of the epic dinosaur blockbuster at Excel London. Follow in the footsteps of Alan Grant and co. as you explore an ancient wilderness filled with familiar favourites such as raptors, brachiosaurus and, of course, the carnivorous queen of them all, the Tyrannosaurus-Rex. Not only that, but you’ll also get to peek behind the plexiglass and see where the scientists worked their dinosaur-making magic at the Creation Lab. This is no ordinary exhibition, it’s practically a portal into Jurassic World.

When a leather jacket-clad Ian Malcolm uttered the words “life finds a way” I wonder if that included giant, hyper-realistic animatronic dinosaur life that roams around one of London’s sprawling exhibition centres? Whatever the case, it seems the prehistoric creatures have found their way to the Big Smoke, with our very own Isla Nublar opening in the heart of the city. Fans of the iconic film franchise will be in their element, humming the theme tune as they enter through the giant gates and push through prehistoric plant life to find a fascinating menagerie of dinosaurs.

You’ll be pleased to know there’ll be no risk of sudden swooping pterodactyl attacks or calculated assaults from ravenous raptors, so you can leave your flares and tranquiliser guns at home. It’s basically all the fun and wonder of Jurassic World with none of the peril. Probably just as John Hammond envisioned it in the first place. You’ll encounter everything from the neck-ache-inducing Brachiosaurus, munching away high above, and the hard-headed (in more ways than one) Stygimoloch, Stiggy, to the malicious newbie the Indominous Rex, watching you with steely eyes. It’s a true immersion into the franchise, peppered with familiar scenes and much-loved dinosaurs for you to see up-close like never before.

Whatever your age you’ll no doubt be melting once you lay eyes on the adorable baby dinos. Their innocent faces and colourful markings make them the perfect selfie companion. Snap a memento with little Bumpy, the Ankylosaurus from Camp Cretaceous, or, to really juice up your Instagram, you may even dare to capture the toothy grin of the T-Rex. Of course, all this wouldn’t be possible without the work that goes on in the white walls of Hammonds Creation Lab. Inside, you can expect to discover the secrets of dinosaur creation and gaze down at tiny parasaurolophus babies. Don’t miss out on this incredible chance to experience the cinematic magic of dinosaurs, grab your tickets now.