The Power and the Glory

London, England I ventured into a new area today, with great results. The Battersea Power Station doesn’t sound like it would be a particularly tasty destination, but all I can say is Wow!

I was seeing the area after an incredible investment of talent and money, and it was just an astonishing vista unveiled right out of the tube station. Someone had real vision, and architects must have had a field day creating these sinuous living and retail spaces.

The centerpiece is actually the original power station, now a Grade II listed building converted into a retail and entertainment complex. Somehow it works very nicely together with its ultramodern neighbors.

But what led me there? I had a very special goal, tipped off by my friend June. There is a just-opened exhibition called “Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold.” Fresh on the heels of my visit to the British Museum, I was curious, but not overly optimistic, thinking it might be a plasticized recreation of Egyptian riches.

I was quite wrong. Every physical item in this gorgeous exhibit is real, on loan from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. Knowing just enough to be dangerous, I was very surprised to see some items that I fully expected to admire when we tour Egypt in the autumn. As often happens, they will be here, and not there.

Ramses is well and truly celebrated here as the great pharoah and builder he was. The exhibit was beautifully laid out and perfectly lit. It has all the romance and drama that I think he and Egypt deserve. It has a model of the famous Abu Simbel temple, moved to create the Aswan Dam, with a recreation of its original ornamentation.

The jewelry is of course gorgeous, and there are some coffins of Ramses’ era, just no mummies. However, there is Ramses’s wooden coffin, in which he was put when he was moved for security reasons from his actual tomb to a cache of other royals, which evaded discovery for 3,000 years. His mummy survived, and can be seen in Cairo. Of note is a silver coffin, which was even more precious than gold.

One other area contained animal mummies, always a crowd pleaser.

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip to Egypt, and a treat to see these treasures. This exhibit travels, and while it has already been to San Francisco, Japan and France, here’s hoping it comes to New York at some point. Ramses, we would welcome you!