Pharaoh enough! Newspaper historian picks best and worst of ancient Egypt big screen depictions

Daily Mail have highlighted what Hollywood blockbusters got right — and horribly wrong — when depicting one of humanity’s greatest civilizations. (Screenshots)
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Updated 27 October 2022
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Pharaoh enough! Newspaper historian picks best and worst of ancient Egypt big screen depictions

  • The one hundredth anniversary of Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb falls in a week’s time
  • British newspaper marked the anniversary by highlighting what blockbusters got right — and horribly wrong — when depicting ancient Egypt

LONDON: From complicated love triangles, to bikini-clad dancers to horses 1,300 years out of date — British newspaper Daily Mail has rated some of Hollywood’s biggest films for their accuracy in portraying ancient Egypt on the big screen.

The one hundredth anniversary of Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb falls in a week’s time, and the daily has marked the anniversary by highlighting what blockbuster films got right — and horribly wrong — when depicting one of humanity’s greatest civilizations.

History correspondent Harry Howard picked out Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s big break in the 2002 film “The Scorpion King,” saying there were, in fact, two real life ‘Scorpion Kings’ about 5,000 years ago. However, the film’s use of horses — which didn’t arrive in Egypt until about 1,700 BC — and the fact The Rock dons a pair of trousers throughout the film definitely mark it down.

Next up was the Harrison Ford-starring “Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.” According to Howard, the Nazi obsession with ancient Egypt was correctly depicted in the 1980s classic, as was the legend surrounding the Ark of the Covenant, but high-ranking National Socialists never attempted to find the Ark as they did in the film.

In for a skewering from Howard was 1999’s “The Mummy,” which depicts the love story between high priest Imhotep and Anck-su-namun, the alleged mistress of Pharaoh Seti I.

The lovers were real figures in ancient Egypt, but the film got its dates all wrong — including misplaced pyramids — and misrepresented Anck-su-namun who was actually the wife of the great Tutankhamun.

And the infamous scene with the scarab beetles? The creepy-crawlies eat dung and aren’t the flesh-eating stuff of nightmares depicted in the film.

One film that fared better in its depiction of ancient Egypt was the 1963 classic “Cleopatra,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, including the accurate portrayal of the eponymous queen’s smuggling in a carpet to meet Julius Caesar in the first century BC, the love affair with Marc Anthony and their dramatic suicide. 

However, it was marked down for its costume design — Taylor’s plunging neck-lines and figure-hugging dresses were a far cry from the traditional, conservative attire donned by women in the period depicted.

Meanwhile, Howard praised the film’s depiction of the life of Moses, but reserved criticism of “whitewashing” for the 1956 Charlton Heston epic “The Ten Commandments,” highlighting how all of the north African and Middle Eastern characters were played by white actors.

And the historian was clear in his dismissal of “Egyptian dancers in green bikinis” as a definite historical faux pas. 


France finds smuggled dinosaur teeth in parcels bound for Italy

Updated 15 February 2025
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France finds smuggled dinosaur teeth in parcels bound for Italy

  • The teeth, probably from Morocco, were found during a routine check
  • They included the tooth of a long-necked marine reptile called a zarafasaura oceanis, a type of plesiosaurus at least 66 million years old first discovered in Morocco

NICE: French customs officers seized nine dinosaur teeth last month from a courier truck transiting through the country from Spain on its way to Italy, they said on Friday.
The teeth, probably from Morocco, were found during a routine check along a highway running along France’s Mediterranean coastline near the Italian border, customs official Samantha Verduron said.
Using sniffer dogs and opening some parcels at random, inspectors have been known to find cannabis or even cocaine among such truckloads of hundreds of parcels traveling from Spain to Italy, she said.
But on January 27, officials from the French border town of Menton found nine enormous teeth in two parcels that were destined for addresses near the Italian cities of Genoa and Milan, French customs said.
An expert at the Menton prehistory museum helped identify the fossils as probably dating back tens of millions of years and originating from what is now Morocco.
They included the tooth of a long-necked marine reptile called a zarafasaura oceanis, a type of plesiosaurus at least 66 million years old first discovered in Morocco.
Some people believe plesiosauruses, which lived in different parts of the globe, inspired the legend of the Loch Ness monster in Scotland.
Three other teeth would have once belonged to a mosasaurus, an extinct aquatic lizard with a long snout.
The remaining five teeth were thought to belong to a dyrosaurus, an ancestor of the crocodile.
Fossils must be authorized for export and without such a license are usually returned to their country of origin.
An investigation is under way to identify the receivers and decide how to proceed, Verduron said.
In 2020, France returned 25,000 items including fossils, minerals, stones and art objects to Morocco after intercepting them in 2005 and 2006.
Most had been found during illegal excavations.
In 2015, customs officers in the French city of Lyon found part of the skeleton of a tarbosaurus bataar, a land dinosaur that walked on its hind legs, that had been illegally excavated in Mongolia.
Dinosaur remains have become a hot-ticket item in recent years, with paleontologists voicing concern that museums are losing out to private bidders.
A hedge fund CEO last year spent a record $44.6 million to buy a stegosaurus fossil at a New York auction.
Dinosaurs first appeared at least 230 million years ago, while the first humans are believed to have appeared on Earth only around six million years ago.


Spanish tourist hotspot Malaga to ban horse-drawn carriages

Updated 15 February 2025
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Spanish tourist hotspot Malaga to ban horse-drawn carriages

MALAGA: A pair of tourists admire the shimmering Mediterranean from their horse-drawn carriage on the seaside promenade in Spain’s southern port of Malaga — a postcard image whose days are numbered.
The city wants to ban horse-drawn carriages from its streets this year to protect the animals after years of criticism of the trade.
The decision to follow in the footsteps of other tourist hotspots such as Rome and Chicago dismayed visitors including Anastasia, a chef who had traveled from Britain.
“It’s really nice, I was impressed — seeing Malaga like this is completely different,” said the 47-year-old as she dismounted from a carriage.
Fellow British tourist Robert agreed, expressing his wonder at his “amazing” trip with a “beautiful” horse.
“I am sure it helps the city attract more tourists,” added the 46-year-old business owner.
Animal rights activists criticize horse-drawn carriages for tourists because of the strain they put on the animals, especially during the searing summer heat.
Summer temperatures in Malaga can soar to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), said Concordia Marquez, founder of a nearby shelter called “Todos los Caballos del Mundo” (All the Horses in the World).
“Horses and horse-drawn carriages have to cover a lot of ground, both to get to where they spend the night, where they sleep, and to get back to their place of work,” added Marquez.
“That’s inhumane to make a horse work like that.”
Malaga city hall had announced in 2015 that it aimed to ban horse-drawn carriages from its streets by 2035, but it now wants to bring the ban forward to this year.
Officials are in talks with the holders of the last 25 licenses to reach an agreement.
“We have been negotiating for a long time, we have met 99 percent of the demands of carriage owners,” Malaga’s city councillor for mobility, Maria Trinidad Hernandez, told AFP.
“What we are looking for is animal welfare, but it is also the case that they used to have more places to circulate,” she added.
“With the building works that have gone on for the last 20 years, there is hardly any left. There is the park and a little bit of the promenade left.”
Horse-drawn carriages will not totally disappear — they will still be allowed as part of festivals and traditions like Malaga’s annual fair in August.
“What there won’t be are municipal licenses, the tourist horse-drawn carriage, the one you take and pay for as if it were a street taxi,” said Hernandez.


A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera

Updated 15 February 2025
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A humpback whale briefly swallows kayaker in Chilean Patagonia — and it’s all captured on camera

  • While whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile: A humpback whale briefly swallowed a kayaker off Chilean Patagonia before quickly releasing him unharmed. The incident, caught on camera, quickly went viral.
Last Saturday, Adrián Simancas was kayaking with his father, Dell, in Bahía El Águila near the San Isidro Lighthouse in the Strait of Magellan when a humpback whale surfaced, engulfing Adrián and his yellow kayak for a few seconds before letting him go.
Dell, just meters (yards) away, captured the moment on video while encouraging his son to stay calm.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” he can be heard saying after his son was released from the whale’s mouth.
“I thought I was dead,” Adrián told The Associated Press. “I thought it had eaten me, that it had swallowed me.”

He described the “terror” of those few seconds and explained that his real fear set in only after resurfacing, fearing that the huge animal would hurt his father or that he would perish in the frigid waters.
Despite the terrifying experience, Dell remained focused, filming and reassuring his son while grappling with his own worry.
“When I came up and started floating, I was scared that something might happen to my father too, that we wouldn’t reach the shore in time, or that I would get hypothermia,” Adrián said.
After a few seconds in the water, Adrián managed to reach his father’s kayak and was quickly assisted. Despite the scare, both returned to shore uninjured.
Located about 1,600 miles (3,000 kilometers) south of Santiago, Chile’s capital, the Strait of Magellan is a major tourist attraction in the Chilean Patagonia, known for adventure activities.
Its frigid waters pose a challenge for sailors, swimmers and explorers who attempt to cross it in different ways.
Although it’s summer in the Southern Hemisphere, temperatures in the region remain cool, with minimums dropping to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) and highs rarely exceeding 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius.)
While whale attacks on humans are extremely rare in Chilean waters, whale deaths from collisions with cargo ships have increased in recent years, and strandings have become a recurring issue in the last decade.
 


Ukranians mark Valentine's Day with tears

Updated 15 February 2025
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Ukranians mark Valentine's Day with tears

  • "I gave this book to him as a wedding anniversary present. A month later, he was gone," Natalia said through her tears as she gazed at the tombstone
  • Vassyl was a writer, a lover of literature. As he did not have time to enjoy her latest present, Natalia brought it with her to the cemetery, "to read it to him"

LVIV: All Natalia has for Valentine's Day is the grave of her husband, Vassyl, a Ukrainian soldier killed at the front and now buried in the western city of Lviv.
That and a purple book of poems she clutches tightly in her hands.
"I gave this book to him as a wedding anniversary present. A month later, he was gone," Natalia said through her tears as she gazed at the tombstone.
Natalia and Vassyl spent 21 years of their lives together. They had three children, the youngest of whom is just six.
Vassyl was a writer, a lover of literature. As he did not have time to enjoy her latest present, Natalia brought it with her to the cemetery, "to read it to him".
Swaddled in a black puffer jacket, her eyes red with emotion, Natalia recited "So no one has loved," a poem she had learned by heart.
Between the pages of the poetry book she had slipped the dried petals of a yellow rose, the same colour as the roses on Vassyl's grave.
Natalia was not the only soldier's widow at the cemetery in western Ukraine on Friday, where the tombstones were decorated with red heart-shaped balloons, cuddly toys and the yellow and blue national flag.
Maria lost her husband, Andrey, on Christmas Eve last year.
They had never celebrated Valentine's Day, she said, calling it "just a marketing ploy".
"But I don't know. Today I wanted to come," she said.
"It's all very painful. And unfair, really," she added. "Instead of having a good, beautiful life, like we had before this war, now you only have a grave in the cemetery and that's it."
Another widow, also called Natalia, was busy pinning a little heart to the flowers on the grave of her spouse, who was killed when a drone hit his car.
"I can't get used to the fact that he is no more, that I will never hear him again, never see him again," she said.
"My husband loved me very much. He always called me constantly. He loved me. He would have congratulated me today too, if he were alive."
On the other side of the country in Kramatorsk, at the heart of the fighting in the eastern region of Donetsk, 30-year-old combat medic Yaroslav was preparing Thursday to spend a third Valentine's Day in a row without his wife.
Despite the distance, he has resolved to keep the faith. "Let it be a holiday. That's it. War is war. there will always be hard times," he said.
He showed AFP the goodies in his khaki bag -- macaroons oozing with chocolate sent to him by his spouse, who knew they were his favourite treat.
He and his comrades had sent back flowers and sweets by post or courier.
Yaroslav has not seen his wife for three months, and would probably have to wait another three.
"I feel sad to leave her. It is sad to come back here," he said quietly, lowering his bright blue eyes.
If they had been together on Valentine's Day, "I think we wouldn't talk. We would just be hugging."
A little way off, Olga Volodiuk, a florist, waited for the lovers who did not turn up.
"The market is empty," Volodiuk said, wrapping herself tightly in her pink puffer jacket.
She blamed the increasing attacks on Kramatorsk, a major army base near one of the few remaining cities in the east under Ukrainian control.
The shops were full of cuddly bears and coloured decorations for Valentine's Day but this year there were fewer customers, Volodiuk said.
"There were explosions today," she said. "There is no line to buy bread so to buy flowers, even less so."


First astronaut with a disability cleared for space station mission

Updated 14 February 2025
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First astronaut with a disability cleared for space station mission

  • The first-ever astronaut with a physical disability has been cleared for a mission onboard the International Space Station, the European Space Agency announced on Friday

PARIS:The first-ever astronaut with a physical disability has been cleared for a mission onboard the International Space Station, the European Space Agency announced on Friday.
John McFall, a 43-year-old British surgeon and former Paralympian who lost a leg in a motorbike accident when he was 19, said he was “hugely proud” of clearing the hurdle.
Since announcing McFall as a member of its astronaut reserve in 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) has been assessing the feasibility of someone with a prosthesis becoming a crew member on a space mission.
On Friday, the ESA announced that McFall had received medical clearance for a long-duration mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS).
McFall emphasized that he was “relatively passive” in the process, and just had to be medically healthy and carry out the required tasks.
“This is way bigger than me — this is a cultural shift,” he told an online press conference.
There is no date yet for when McFall will get his chance to become what the ESA has dubbed the first “parastronaut.”
“Now he’s an astronaut like everybody else who wants to fly to the space station, waiting for a mission assignment,” the ESA’s director of human and robotic exploration Daniel Neuenschwander said.
The ESA’s announcement comes as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have come under attack from the new US administration of Donald Trump.
“We are now entering a world which is changing a bit from a DEI perspective from one of our partners of the International Space Station,” Neuenschwander said.
“We will continue with our European values,” he emphasized, adding that all ISS partners — which includes the United States — had given McFall medical clearance.
The next phase of the feasibility study will look at some of the hardware needed, including prosthetics, so that McFall can best overcome any additional challenges in space.
McFall said that technologies they are working on “are going to trickle down and have benefits for prosthetic users in wider society as well.”