CLEOPATRA, the legendary Egyptian pharaoh and one of the most powerful, seductive and captivating characters in all of history, is coming to Philadelphia. "Cleopatra: the Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, the US will display 250 artifacts from ongoing excavations in the search for the tomb of Antony and Cleopatra. Many of the featured relics from the excavation, which is led by Zahi Hawass, will be on display for the first time. Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said at first glance a papyrus document among these relics might seem a nondescript artifact, albeit one from the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. On closer inspection it may be one of the most significant artifacts relating to Cleopatra, the enigmatic last queen of Egypt. The papyrus is essentially a tax exemption, granting freedom from payment on the import of Roman wine to Egypt. The beneficiary is a prominent businessman named Publius Canidius, who happens to be a close friend of Mark Antony, one of Rome's triumvirs and lover of Cleopatra. The manuscript, meant for someone in the Egyptian bureaucracy, is signed by none other than Cleopatra herself, who ends the letter abruptly: "Ginesthoi," she says - "make it happen."
