Last weekend my good friend Travis and I made a 1,100 mile weekend trip to Indianapolis to visit the King Tutankhamun exhibit that will only tour the United States once before returning permanently back to Egypt.
No, we didn’t see King Tut’s mummified body. We did see a lot of exhibits about his family and his tomb. We were forbidden from taking photos in the exhibit, but we did see the following:
- King Tut’s canopic coffinette (where his insides were embalmed and stored for the voyage to the afterlife)
- Tut’s golden sandals that he worn in his tomb
- earrings (and other jewelry)
- HUGE bust of Pharaoh Akhenaten (more on that later)
- Funerary mask of Psusennes I
- Coffin of Ahmose
- Tut’s royal bed (made of wood and still intact after 4,000+ years)
Much more! About Akenaten — he was suspected to have been King Tut’s father, and he believed in monotheism — the practice of worshipping one god. That was against traditional Egyptian practice. After his death, his legacy was shattered from the records and he was “swept under the rug.” That’s one of the main reasons why experts believe King Tut’s tomb was intact — he was unknown because of his association with Akenaten. Fascinating story.
In the Children’s Museum, we also saw some other exhibits — namely the Star Wars: The Clone Wars props, and the 43-foot tall glass tower made by famed glass sculptor/artist Dale Chihuly. See pictures:
(this was the see-through floor that you could view from the bottom. Every piece of color is made from glass.)
Dinosaurs at the entrance of the museum.
Huge statue of Egypt god Anubis on the outside of the museum
Pendulum clock operated solely on water (it’s dyed blue in the photo) — vacuum operated that pushes water up and down to count the minutes and hours.
Travis and me on the rotating seat looking up at the glass ceiling.
We didn’t get to see much of Indianapolis — but I saw Lucas Oil Stadium — where the Indianapolis Colts play football. It looks nice and clean from the outside.
We ate at two nice restaurants in downtown Indy, and I added 4 shot glasses to my ever-growing collection.
It was definitely a good weekend. If you ever want to see King Tut — go see him before October!
That’s sounds fun at the Children Museum. I think I seen that glass sculpture before at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. This website has more history about glass.
WOW! Sounds like you had fun! You were so close to me. Just 5 hours north and you’ll see me. Next time you gotta visit me. =)
I’ll definitely do that…if my friend allows me!
damn! Travis looks exactly the same as he did when we all attended Gally. I assume he’s finished with his braces
-DC