Museum works to make Egypt relevant to Las Vegas children

What do a Southern Nevada schoolkid and a youngster growing up in Egypt circa 1300 B.C. have in common?

More than you might think, and putting it into perspective will be the focus of an interactive exhibit being planned for the Las Vegas Natural History Museum.

The Tomb & Museum of King Tutankhamen at Luxor shut its doors in June as part of a hotel-wide thematic revamp. Luxor donated the items formerly housed in the exhibit -- more than 500 of them, each a replica of an actual artifact -- to the museum.

Now, the museum is raising money to mount a new exhibit featuring the former Luxor replicas. Marilyn Gillespie, the museum's executive director, said the goal will be to create an interactive space that helps to make Egypt and its culture relevant to children who live in Las Vegas.

"We want to be able to make connections for them, that this is a wonderful culture that was in the desert and, guess what, we live in the desert, too," Gillespie said.

"There will be connections of the reliance on the Nile to this culture, and how important the Nile was for food and transportation and water and irrigation. Then, we also want to bring in about how, today, we are still very reliant on water, and that the original settlers of Las Vegas even came to this spot because there was water here."

The exhibit will expand beyond the Tut artifacts to include what life was like for ordinary young people during the pharaoh's time.

According to Gillespie, plans are to renovate a 4,000-square-foot patio area at the museum to house the proposed exhibit. Costs are estimated at about $500,000 for the renovation and $200,000 for the exhibit itself, she said.

While there is no timeline for completion, Gillespie said she hopes the new exhibit will open early next year.

Gillespie noted that the museum actually "had been thinking about creating an Egyptian exhibition for a long time," but Luxor's donation moved that notion from the museum's wish list to its to-do list.

"We are just overwhelmed by (Luxor's) generosity," she said.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.