Head into the pharaoh's tomb with Dynamic Earth on March 7

On Feb. 25, Dynamic Earth invited reporters to marvel at the treasures of King Tut's final resting place.

The King Tutankhamen: Treasures of the Pharaoh's Tomb exhibit, which opens to the public March 7 until Sept. 7, is a rare opportunity for Sudburians to escape the Canadian winter and travel to the sun-bathed lands of ancient Egypt.

The exhibit features 84 diverse representations of historical treasures originating from King Tut's era, from lavish royal coffins to golden guardians watching over their fallen masters and chariots that seem ready to thunder across the desert sands.

“Its like being immersed in King Tutankhamen's tomb,” said Julie Moskalyk, the senior manager at Dynamic Earth.

The museum will also display some original millennium-old artifacts lent by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), such as a preserved ibis, cat, falcon and, the star of the show, Nefer-Mut, an ancient mummy that has mystified archaeologists for more than a century.

Fortunately, scientists are uncovering enough information to bring the mummy back from the dead (figuratively, as far as we know).

Nefer-Mut was a chantress, or singer, at the Mut temple, which overlooks the city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor) and is dedicated to the goddess Mut. She was the mother of Khonsu the moon-god and was associated with vultures. The goddess had a bad reputation for attacking humans when angered, and thus most of the rituals in which Nefer-Mut participated were performed to calm the deity down. (LINK http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/templemut.htm)

“The University of Western Ontario has worked with the ROM to re-create what she would have look like,” Moskalyk said. “A great forensic reconstruction artist from Montreal by the name of Victoria Lywood created a bust of what Nefer-Mut's face would have actually looked like.”

Nefer-Mut has been in Canada for more than a century since being discovered by a ROM Egyptologist.

At the time, the ROM was building up its collection of ancient artifacts, so the government of Egypt decided to help out by gifting the mummy to the then new museum.

The current Egyptian government is far less generous with its historical legacy, and the days of King Tut visiting Canadians with all his belongings on display have come to an end for the foreseeable future.

Sudburians can adapt to these new laws by making their own “Egyptian” artifacts at Dynamic Earth.

“In our exhibit hall is the mummy lab,” she continued. “And in the mummy lab is a workshop that offers a lot of interaction.”

Come and learn how to preserve the dead, become a scribe by engraving hieroglyphic texts on rolls of papyrus or become an Egyptian makeup artist — at the end of the day you and your family can crash for the night in the mummy's lair.

Four Egyptologists will also visit Dynamic Earth over the next few months to bring the exhibit to life.

Dr. Angelique Corthals, who specializes in ancient DNA, offers a day program for school children March 5.

April 16 -18, an expert on King Tut artifacts, Dr. Tammy Gabber, travels all the way from Cairo to talk about Egypt's famous boy-king.

On June 4, Dr. Gayle Gibson, who works with Nefer-Mut's mummy, will tell visitors everything that is known about the chantress' life.

Last but not least, writer Dr. Bob Brier (author and narrator of Discovery Channel's “Napoleons Obsession: The Quest For Egypt”) will be on hand July 24 to talk about the mummification process, which is fitting because he mummified an actual cadaver, earning him the villainous-sounding nickname “Dr. Mummy.”

Dr. Mummy will host the museum's adults-only nightlife event that will teach patrons about archaeology and history while they enjoy some tasty cocktails.

Entry fee is $15, unless you are a Dynamic Earth member or if it is your birthday that month, in which case it's free.

So come and behold Egypt's magnificent past, and have a lot of fun in the process.