Queen Nefertari’s Egypt at the Kimbell Art Museum was AMAZING!!! The favorite wife of the Pharoah Ramses the Great, the exhibit is centered not only on her life, and burial, but Egyptian life during the time of her reign, with an emphasis on the women of ancient Egypt. For example, I did not know that the black crushed stone, kohl, that they wore around their eyes was not merely cosmetic, but was a protection from “bacteria, infection and the harsh sun.” It is believed that women during the New Kingdom, 3,300 years ago, were even allowed to own property and had legal and financial rights! In our entitled bubbles we live today, it’s crazy to think that we could ever lose those rights, but hasn’t history proved that it has happened, over and over again?
One of the rooms of the exhibit is solely devoted to Nefertari’s extensive tomb, one of the most elaborate in the Valley of the Queens. There is a scale model of the tomb, which has several rooms and 2 stories. The walls were also painted in beautiful detail! Unfortunately, her tomb was robbed shortly after she was buried, and most of the items taken. In fact, most of what remains is displayed in the exhibit, including, and wait for it, a mummified pair of knees that they believe belonged to Nefartari! Nothing else of the body, just the knees. So yeah, there were weird Egyptians, too.
There are some pretty great sarcophaguses on exhibit as well, a big wow factor for my 13-year-old. I did remind him how not that many years ago I had to carry him out crying of the Hall of Ancient Egypt at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, because his sister had told him the mummys would eat him. Thankfully, he wasn’t too scarred and we have visited the Hall of Ancient Egypt since, and it really is amazing!
Leo was able to go with us to see Queen Nefertari’s Egypt, thanks to virtual learning. His schedule has a big gap in the morning. He was late signing in for one class, but we’re going with this being an educational field trip excuse. I mean, he did see a pair of 3,300-year-old knees. There has to be something in that.
One of the benefits of visiting an exhibit like this with older kids is they taught me a lot, actually. Such as why Upper Egypt is lower on the map than Lower Egypt, and what a frieze is. Cole said his Art History class at Texas State really helped him gain an appreciation of some of the aspects of the exhibit that would have passed him by had he not taken the class, which he really wasn’t that interested in taking.
From a Covid-19 stand, the museum is not using a timed-entry, however they do only allow so many people in each room at a time, use and enforce one way traffic flow and of course, required social distancing. We did visit during the week, and not on a Tuesday or Friday during their half-price options, so I would expect it to be busier during these times.
Cole and I compared it to King Tut, which we saw at the Dallas Museum of Art in 2009. Tut was a much more “grandiose” exhibit, but SO busy, while this was much more intimate and we really felt we had a better understanding of Egyptian life, both for the royal families and the common working families.
It was 1989 that Nefertari’s husband, Ramses the Great, was last on exhibit in Dallas, out at Fair Park. We missed The Boy King, Tutankhamun’s exhibit in Cedar Park in 2016. So, make your plans to visit the Kimbell before the exhibit leaves on March 14th, because obviously this isn’t something you can see everyday!
Our bummer came that our restaurant pick, King Tut’s Egyptian Restaurant on Magnolia in Ft Worth, was only take out, and the rainy weather just couldn’t accommodate taking it out to a park. We grabbed lunch instead at Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken Fort Worth Texas, which is never a bad substitute! We actually found a quiet table out of the way and Leo was able to be in class while we ate.
Kimbell Art Museum
3333 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth
Click HERE to visit their website.
Keep Having Fun in the Texas Sun!
Michelle
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