Tonight is La Nuit des Musées in Paris, where museums around the city are open all night free of charge. Long Nights of Museums, as they are called, have become popular in Europe, and seem to have begun in Berlin in 1997. At the Louvre, many visitors are eager to see the Egyptian Antiquities section, within which one of the chef d'oeuvres is the Mastaba of Akhethetep. A mastaba is a flat-roofed mud-brick Egyptian tomb, with some examples pre-dating the pyramids. That of Akhethetep, dated to 2,400 BC, was discovered in 1903 by Georges Aaron Bénédicte, and moved to the Louvre. Over the next century, sand filled in the excavation site, which had to be 'rediscovered' in 1991. The Louvre is currently beginning the process of installing a chapel that originally surrounded the tomb.
Bonus:
The man who found Akhethep's tomb, Georges Aaron Bénédicte, passed away shortly after visiting the tomb of King Tutankhamun, adding to the lore of the Cure of the Pharaohs. Although a surprising number of those present when the tomb was opened did die under bizarre circumstances over the coming years, it has also been pointed out that of the 58 present, only eight died within a dozen years.
-E
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