LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Ramses the Great and the Gold of the Pharaohs


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The Orinda Library will host an in-person talk on Wednesday, Jan. 11, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. featuring Rene Dreyfus, the George and Judy Marcus distinguished curator in charge of ancient art at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, who will speak on the current exhibition at the de Young.

The event is sponsored by the Friends of the Orinda Library. Seating will be limited and on a first-come, first served basis. For special accommodations, please contact the library with 72 hours notice.

The event is rated as suitable for adults and teens. The exhibition will run at the de Young Museum of San Francisco through Feb. 12. According to the de Young website, Ramses II, known as Ramses the Great, was the most celebrated and powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom - Egypt's golden age. Believed to be a god on Earth, he ruled for 67 years as part of the 19th Dynasty, erecting enormous temples, obelisks, and statues and expanding Egypt's empire.

This state-of-the-art exhibition features the greatest collection of Ramses II objects and Egyptian jewelry ever to travel to the United States. Along with the pharaoh's colossal royal sculpture, the exhibition highlights recently discovered animal mummies and treasures from the royal tombs of Dahshur and Tanis.

Visitors can walk among towering statues and immerse themselves in multimedia productions that re-create moments from Ramses's life, including his triumph at Kadesh, the largest chariot battle ever fought. An optional virtual reality experience, "Ramses & Nefertari: Journey to Osiris," offers a breathtaking tour of two of Ramses's most impressive monuments: Abu Simbel and Nefertari's tomb.