Jean-François Champollion is one of my personal heroes. He was the Frenchman who won the race to decipher the hieroglyphics and was a renowned polyglot.
Cassandra
Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt at the British Museum
This exhibition marks 200 years since the decipherment of Egyptian hieroglyphs and charts the race to the unravelling of the mystery. Find out more here.
My other favourite places to see Egyptian treasures outside of Egypt are at the Museo Egizio in Turin (pictured) and the Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities.
Visions of Ancient Egypt at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
This exhibition explores the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt in art and design from the ancient past to the present day.
Over 150 works drawn from collections in the UK and internationally will examine how ancient Egypt has shaped our cultural imagination.
Find out more here.
New ‘Egyptomania’ collection at Soane Britain
Soane Britain, founded by my friend Lulu Lytle, are celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a new 'Egyptomania' collection, including a collaboration with Yasmin Hayat, an expert in the art and geometry of the Middle Eastern and Arabic world.
My favourite places to visit in Egypt
- The Pyramids at Giza - especially Saqqara (pictured)
- The Valley of Kings
- A boat down the Nile to Thebes and Aswan
- The Wissa Wassef weavers
My Egypt Reading List
- Atlas of Egyptian Art by Prisse d'Avennes. American University in Cairo Press. One of my most treasured books ever.
- Moses: Pharaoh of Egypt by Ahmed Osman. Grafton.
- The Pharaohs by Christiane Ziegler. Thames and Hudson.
- Cleopatra of Egypt: from history to myth edited by Susan Walker and Peter Higgs. British Museum Press.
- The Cairo Museum: Masterpieces of Egyptian Art. By Francesco Tiraditti. Thames and Hudson.
- Egyptian Grammar by Sir Alan Gardiner. Oxford University Press.
- The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt by Aidan Dodson. Thames and Hudson.
- Stranger in the Valley of the Kings: Solving the Mystery of an Ancient Egyptian Mummy by Ahmed Osman.
- Nefertiti: the book of the dead by Nick Drake.
- The Tutankhamun Deception by Gerald O'Farrell.
- Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz.
