Guided Search: Historical Preservation / Archaeology, Africa

Modern African dance and traditional African music, an African marketplace, a mancala game station, craft making for families and more converge at the Penn Museum’s annual Celebration of African Cultures.

 In honor of the first visit by Pope Francis and the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, the Penn Museum, in conjunction with the Penn Libraries, offers Sacred Writings: Extraordinary Texts of the Biblical World, a special exhibition of rare artifacts from the Museum Collection and rare books and manuscripts from the Penn Libraries.

At the afternoon talk, Dr. Hawass shares an inside perspective on a host of recent archaeological discoveries in Egypt. Dr. Hawass has excavated around the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza for many years.

He found the tombs of the pyramid builders that tell the story of the workmen who were involved in the massive construction projects.

He also drilled under the Sphinx to learn more. At Giza, he directed a scientific research team that used a robot to search for secret doors inside the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

Experience the magnificence of 5,000 years of ancient Egyptian culture presented in galleries on two grand floors. Enter the reconstructed palace of the Pharaoh Merenptah, and see a 12-ton sphinx, the third largest in the world. In two special exhibitions, visitors discover the story behind a short-lived royal city where King Tut was born, and explore The Egyptian Mummy: Secrets and Science.

The Ibrahim Theater at the International House of Philadelphia will host a viewing of Lionel Rogosin's 1959 powerful, political film Come Back, Africa. After witnessing firsthand the terrors of fascisim as a soldier in World War II, Rogosin vowed to fight against it wherever and whenever he saw it reemerging. In an effort to expose "what people try to avoid seeing," he travelled to South Africa and Secretly filmed Come Back, Africa, which revealed the cruelty and injustice suffered by black and colored poples under apartheid. $9 General Admission, $7 Senior / Student, FREE for IHP Members