I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today to check out the special exhibition Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh. With the exception of learning her personal story, which is pretty fascinating, the exhibit wasn’t really that exciting. It looked like every other exhibit I’ve ever seen about mummies, except that there were no actual mummies.

One thing I did notice was that there were a lot more ‘girly items’ on display, which was kind of fun. There was all kinds of jewelry; rings, bracelets, cuffs, armbands, necklaces, belly-necklaces, ornate clasps, collars, rings, earrings and a diadem(a decorative headpiece). There were also a couple of jewelry boxes a some other toiletries, like powder boxes, kohl jars and applicators, combs, tweezers, ointment jars, cosmetic jars, cosmetic spoons (which were purely decorative and meant to be ‘cute’), hand mirrors and even a razor(yes, hers — did they shave their legs back then?).

Overall, I’d say don’t go out of your way to go to this exhibit, but if you’re in the Met anyway, wander through it. It runs until July 9th, and be sure to download The Special Exhibition Podcast to your iPod (cheaper than the $6 they charge there).

[Just in case you are lame like me and don’t know how to subscribe to a podcast, here’s how to do it (in iTunes): 1) click on Podcasts in the left menu 2) choose advanced from the top menu 3)choose subscribe to podcast and 4)paste in the URL (the one above, that ends in .xml) ]