Both exhibits focus on periods of powerful leaders and exciting artistic advances. And if those two aren't enough Egypt for you, there's plenty more a gallery over or a subway ride away. With more than 30 rooms of top-notch Egyptian treasures in the Met's permanent collection and more than a floor's worth at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York is one of the world centers of Egyptian art. New Yorkers can tour the land of the pyramids without even a camel, following in the footsteps of Western visitors since Herodotus. B.C. To Westerners who followed Herodotus, from Alexander the Great to Napoleon and beyond, Egypt was a land of vast, mysterious monuments and toppled kings.
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away. Egypt was also, of course, a never-ending source of deliciously venerable souvenirs. In one gorgeous sculpture, a pair of goddesses flanks King Menkaure, their shoulders slightly behind his. Hathor, the goddess of love, holds his hand as he steps forward with his left foot, not quite smiling. A monumental seated statue of Hemiunu, a portly man getting on in years, puts a personal face on the Great Pyramid at Giza.