I was in Washington DC recently to meet up with some old colleagues. While downtown, I saw that the National Geographic Museum had a King Tut display, so I decided to walk over and check it out. I had no idea what to expect, as I did not really look into it. I suspected it would be the usual display of artifacts with narrative support that you usually see. That, however, is not what this was about.
Quite often, the Museum has photo displays that show off the shots taken by National Geographic photographers. However, this was not that either!
Instead, the area was set up by going through the death period of King Tut and his tomb. Each area was presented as a video display, with related spoken narrative and text. So, kind of a Vlog of King Tutenkamen.
It was an interesting approach. Everything was very professionally done and was clearly quite costly to produce. However, it had the advantage of being easy to travel.
I found the experience interesting. I spent about an hour going through everything. Definitely nice from a general learning perspective. However, I would have preferred some artifacts, as that is why I go to museums. I can see video at home. As such, if you are into Egyptian history, it is probably worth a visit. Think of it as a walking movie experience.
- Manteuffel