Egyptian Art Tour in Boston, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New York City

Begin today at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), where the renowned exhibit of Egyptian and Nubian antiquities features an array of 45,000 sculptures, mummies, sarcophagi, and jewelry, that covers 7,000 years of Egyptian history. 

The notable group of relics was acquired mainly through the Harvard University – Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expeditions undertaken by George Reisner in the early 20th century. Of particular interest is the impressive collection of Nubian art — the largest and most important of its kind outside of Sudan.  

If available, we will meet with Senior Curator, Dr. Lawrence Berman, to enter the museum’s storage area and view the vast holdings. In the afternoon, we enjoy a specially-arranged presentation on Nubian Art at the home of Dr. Rita Freed, Egyptologist and former curator for the department of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art at the MFA. Gather for our welcome dinner at a neighboring local restaurant. (B/L/D)King Menkaura and queen MFA from Larry Berman at MFA.

This morning we transfer to Cambridge, home to the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE). Formerly the Harvard Semitic Museum, founded in 1889, it was conceived as a teaching tool to study the ancient histories and cultures of people who spoke Semitic languages.  

Here, our study leaders, Bob Brier and Pat Remler, will take us through the gallery dedicated to Egypt, comprising dazzling sculptures, paintings, and textiles covering four millennia from the Old Kingdom to the advent of Islam. 

After lunch at a nearby restaurant, we return to campus for a private meeting with Dr. Peter Der Manuelian, director of both HMANE and The Giza Project at Harvard University. Begun in 2000, The Giza Project’s goal was to digitize the findings and provide access to all archaeological records from George Reisner and the Museum of Fine Arts’ remarkable expedition to Giza.  

The project has since moved to Harvard and, under Dr. Manuelian’s direction, has started a 3D virtual reconstruction of the Giza Plateau as it may have looked when first built. To date, approximately 20 tombs and monuments have been modeled in detail, with many hundreds more still to be digitized. 

Dr. Manuelian will meet with our group and explain how The Giza Project provides new ways to sightsee, explore, and absorb the pyramids and their surrounding cemeteries. Return to the hotel in the late afternoon with dinner on our own. (B/L)

We leave Boston this morning for Brooklyn, New York. After lunch at a local restaurant, we will explore the Brooklyn Museum, which has one of the finest exhibitions of Egyptian artifacts in the United States. 

A particularly striking item, the 5,000-year-old ‘Bird Lady’ is among the oldest statuettes found in Egypt, perhaps representing a priestess or a goddess dancing or performing ritualized mourning at a funeral ceremony. 

Between 1916 and 1947, the museum acquired the splendid collection from pioneer American Egyptologist Charles Edwin Wilbour who dug in Egypt in the late 19th century, including his professional library. 

Since 1976, the museum has also conducted excavations at the Temple Precinct of the goddess Mut at Karnak, and many of its discoveries are shown here as well. 

Continue into New York City and the 5-star Carlyle Hotel on the Upper East Side, our home for the next four nights.  Since 1930, this luxurious boutique hotel located only a few blocks from Central Park has epitomized sophistication and elegance.  Dinner will be at an elegant local restaurant. (B/L/D)

On day 5, we visit the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia — commonly called Penn Museum. 

Penn Museum has recently gone through an extensive renovation. Along with the completely redesigned Africa Galleries and Mexico/Central America Gallery, a new entrance was created. If available, the Co-Curator of Egyptian Art will tell us about the formidable process of moving the museum’s famous colossal pink granite sphinx that now dominates the new entry arcade. 

We then will inspect the vast amounts of Egyptian and Nubian material, unusual in that the majority was obtained through archaeological investigations. Before beginning its own projects, the museum financially supported the work of the Egypt Exploration Fund (later Egypt Exploration Society), a British organization responsible for scientific digs throughout Egypt, including that of Sir William M. Flinders Petrie. After returning to New York City in the late afternoon, dinner is on our own. (B/L)

We will begin the day with an elegant brunch at the Carlyle Restaurant in our hotel. We will then walk the few blocks to Central Park with a stop at Cleopatra’s Needle, a 3,000-year-old Aswan-granite obelisk from Egypt. 

Originally erected at Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III in 1475 BC, it was later transported by the Romans in 12 BC to Alexandria. In 1878, the Khedive gave the monument to the United States. While viewing this superb creation, we will learn about the formidable task of moving it to New York City, as well as the history behind its hieroglyphic inscriptions commemorating Ramesses II’s military victories.  

We continue to the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), where imposing Egyptian relics are spread over 39 rooms. The Egyptian display is arranged in chronological order to more easily understand the development of this long-lived civilization. 

One of the points of interest is the Temple of Dendur, built circa 15 BC by the Roman emperor Augustus. The temple was dedicated to the goddess Isis and to two sons of a local Nubian ruler who had aided the Romans in their wars with the queen of Meroe. Due to its original location in Lower Nubia, about fifty miles south of modern Aswan, the temple was dismantled in the 1960s to save it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after the construction of the Aswan High Dam. 

In the late afternoon, return to the hotel to rest before our farewell dinner party at the home of our study leaders. After a memorable meal, there will be time for Bob Brier to show us through his extensive library and his personal collection of Egyptomania paraphernalia.  

(Note: transportation for the morning and afternoon visits will not be provided. From the hotel, the walk to/from the MET is approximately 10 minutes each direction. A bus will transport us to dinner.) (B-brunch/ /D)