King Tut - Parte Dieux

I hit the King Tut exhibition as soon as it opened this morning at 9, since I heard the crowds were ridiculous. And, I was so glad that I got that Marriott package deal, which included VIP tickets. Without the VIP tickets, I would have been left standing in a line that snaked around the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art and sometimes took hours in the unseasonably warm/humid weather.

The VIP tickets not only put me at the head of the line, they included complimentary audio guides narrated by no less than Omar Sharif.

But, once I got inside, the whole VIP thing went out the window. All the trappings of status evaporated as I was herded together with the "peons" into what seemed like increasingly smaller and smaller chambers.

Fortunately, Omar Sharif guided me to the most important exhibits in each room, and I didn't have to kill anybody. I know I missed a lot of the lesser exhibits. But, I was getting claustrophobic, and decided it was best to just hit the highlights. For me, this meant:

(1) The golden "coffinette" of King Tut, the image I'm sure just about everybody thinks of when someone mentions the "boy king of Egypt."

(2) The gilded Mask of Tuyu, one of the female members of the Egyptian royal family.

(3) A pair of gilded wooden figures of Tut, depicting him first as King of Upper Egypt and then as King of Lower Egypt.

(4) A make-up jar with a lion on the lid, mostly because the regal feline was depicted with a lolling red tongue and a stupid look on his face . . . a lot like my cat Keegan looks when she stops in mid-bath!

Bottom line: Lots of cool stuff to see here. The crowds are a hassle, but can be made tolerable by springing the extra bucks for the VIP passes and the audio guide.