Egyptian artefacts; Millennium Dome; crowds

I was in London on Saturday as my friend Helen had very kindly bought me (as a birthday present) a ticket to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition at the O2. I knew frankly very little about the boy king himself or about ancient Egypt in general, so I did learn stuff. The golden death mask was not part of the exhibition, a fact that seems to have caused some controversy, although there was plenty of other beautiful stuff on display, including the 'Canopic Coffinette of Tutankhamun' - a jar that once held Tut's mummified liver. A fine substitute in anyone's terms….

I knew something about the plunder of the tomb back in the 1920s and did visit the exhibition of Egyptian stuff at Highclere Castle some years back (although I seem to recall that at the time, my sister and I were less than interested in the exhibition and breezed fairly quickly through it looking for the tearoom). The O2 exhibition did have quite a lot of space given over to pictures and details of the excavation, although it didn't focus at all on the dodgy moral questions surrounding desecration of a burial site.

The day I went was both the last day of the exhibition and the last Saturday of the school holidays, so to say that it was heaving would be an understatement. It was difficult to read the labels on some of the exhibits without a good deal of pushing and shoving, although I got a good enough view of most of the exhibits themselves.

The former Millennium Dome has certainly had an internal makeover, but it remains an odd and slightly nondescript venue. I do think, frankly, that the British Museum would have been a nicer and more appropriate venue for these ancient Egyptian exhibits, given its permanent Egyptian rooms and given that London's previous exhibition of treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb was held there (in 1972). The boat trip out there on the Thames Clipper was quite fun though.

I did visit the venue in 2000, together with Ray and his nephew Adam, when it was the actual Millennium Dome. I have to say I never grasped the point of the whole project and think that arguably the Labour Government should have called a halt to it when they came to power. There are a number of other fantastic Millennium (or thereabouts) projects which will leave a much greater legacy - the Tate Modern, the London Eye, the Angel of the North. From my memory of the displays and activities inside the dome, it lacked focus and veered between trying to be a museum and trying to be an amusement park. The 'Body' was probably the most feted exhibit but an excessive amount of queuing to then shuffle slowly past a plastic pancreas wasn't my idea of fun. And we'd got there early for breakfast and the coffee was bad - enough said. At least in its current incarnation as the O₂, there are now some nice-looking restaurants there. Although as I was alone, I sat on a bench and ate my M&S sandwich. The only downside of a day out by yourself.