Manchester, Trafford Centre, Tutankhamun - His Tomb and His Treasure

After missing out on a school prize of a visit to the 1972 London exhibition due to illness, I thought I was going to see a second rate copy, how wrong I was. The exhibits were fantastic, the information boards were just right and not too boring. My headset malfunctioned twice and the batteries ran out on both my companions but this was quickly sorted out first by a technician who was actually on his day off, then by a lovely lady who when we said we did not want to return to the start of the tour loop, talked us through the third part.

I went to the exhibition knowing it was made up of repicas (not fakes) but soon forgot this and enjoyed the whole experience as if it were the real thing.

I have mobility issues which are not obviouse but had no problem with access and when I needed to sit down and rest for a while, found no problem.

My only gripe during the whole experience was that there were uncontroled children messing about..one parent actually encouraging his bratts to fill their pockets with "Egyptian sand" from a display.

I loved it, brilliant, THANK YOU M.O.M and thank you to your staff..technical faults happen and your staff dealt with mine as well as could be expected. PAUL FROM WIGAN WAS SATISFIED !!

Well what can i say, this exhibition was simply a disaster. Extreme overpricing aside, i hope u like queuing, expect to queue for at least 2.5 hours standing up, which is great for the young and old alike!

Oh yeah what isnt clear from the advertising is, that all the exhibits are reproductions! And its not hard to tell, afterall the ancient egytians did not use emulsion paint to the best of my knowledge.

Mandatory audio headsets with commentaries by what sounds like amatuer dramitic pensioners losing the will to live.

Save yourself money and go to the manch museum and see the real thing for free.

I agree with the other reviews. Morning shows had already been sold out by 10.10am and only tickets for 2pm onwards where left. After queueing for tickets and then having to wander The trafford centre for over 4hrs we returned to queue again to get in, queue for audio and then when we entered the first curtained room there was once activity table for children and a few information boards only to discover that we had to queue again to get to the exhibits. Each group was seperated by 12 minutes and the room filled up quite quickly so queueing was ridiculously long. We then went into the next curtained roomm to find not enough seats for the people being sent through and a screen for us to watch a ten minute video with the audio playing on our head sets. We went into another room where screened off exhibits arranged as they were found in the toom were surrounded by a few chairs. Again not enough chairs for the amount of people being sent through and the audio payed automatically but was tedious and very much like being in a tiring version of the discovery channel. After three of these we were finally allowed into the full exhibit area. Yes the items were impressive but by the time we reached them we really had stopped caring and to be then forced into a shop charging atronommical prices just topped of a spectacularly over priced and underwhelming day. i advise people not to go in school holidays and if you must do so ensure you have good footware as you will certainly need it.

Not greatly signposted to start with. It is a strictly organised tour where you have to watch a few films and displays before seeing the 'treasures'. We had to wait 50 mns before entering the first film area. We couldn't even read the displays because we had to keep the place in the queue. Then a coachload of blind people jumped the queue to enter with us without any explanation from staff. Very badly organised access for disabled! Not enough seats or viewing space with children sat on floor at front and parents stood at back. Audio stuff could have been so much more entertaining! Even the 'shop' was uninspired and expensive. Not up to the hype, but good reproductions of the treasures though. We were unlucky with the crowding as the following groups didn't seem to have that problem.

From he moment we arrived we had trouble purchasing our tickets from the box office,which were pre booked that morning, so we had to stand for 20 mins till until our booking was confirmed, My children moaned all the way round that they was bored n so was i to be truthful listening to audio isnt my thing, i was quite dissappointed that it wasnt very child friendly,apart from 1 activity room which a member of staff failed to mention,so we missed that too, then we went to the cafe which happened to be closed, and no vending machines so my children were also moaning of thirst. Basically a waste of money...liverpool museum anyday and its free with loads to do! i also agree with all the other comments.

Very very disapointed in the tutankhamun museum tour. I feel it wasnt value for money as you couldnt see anything as you had to line up like cattle going to the slaughter to view every piece. The audio tour voices were extremely boring too. It would have been alot better if you was allowed to view the pieces in your own time and not have to follow in a group , as I couldnt see anything anyway. In most museums you can stroll around at your own pace. Again i would like to add very disappointed.

Very dissapointed, the charge for this display is way-way over the top!!

All the contents are fakes. The lead headline for the exhibit does not in my opinion make this perfectly clear.

None of the exhibits are anything like the originals, they are simply too new!!

The setting within the display leads you to believe that all the exhibits are the real thing, that is until you read the description, on each there is a note that the exhibit is true to the original??

I would simply not know if that was true!! due to the fact that I have never seen or are likely to see an original.

Don't waste your money to see copies, if you could afford it go to the British Museum, or the Manchester Museum or even the Bolton Museum--All free of charge to see the real thing.

I agree entirely with the previous reviewer. The content of the Tutankhamun exhibition at the Trafford Centre did not live up to the marketing hype. Yes, the exhibits were fantastic replicas of the real items, however, the static nature of the presentations was less than inspiring. The audio commentary was delivered in a style which could have been so much more dynamic and entertaining and the content was written in an unnecessarily academic form. My 4 kids had a version designed for children but were also bored by it.

Having been to Egypt and experienced the culture first-hand, I felt that the event coordinators had missed a real opportunity to inspire and educate visitors. More should have been made of the hieroglyphics and the stories that they were depicting and a more interactive exhibition would have proved easy to deliver and a much bigger hit with audiences, especially children. Sorry but in this day and age the public should expect a much more sophisticated and inspiring exhibition experience.

My advice would be to save the admission fee and take the short trip into Manchester City Centre and go to Manchester Museum where the Egyptian display is the real deal.

The first difficultly is finding the actual venue as it is currently not well sign-posted in the Trafford Centre. There is a car park right next to the musuem of musuems but we couldn't find it as there was no apparent signage on the approach roads.

The exhibition has three long audio video tape presentations, which are relayed through headsets.

After two long presenations in front of large video screens, you'll be glad to reach the cinema because at least you can find a seat and sit down.

There really needs to be more seating so people can actually relax, without the distraction of shuffling from one foot to another or trying to get a view of one of the two main displays in the core exhibition.

We found this style very restrictive as we felt directed from one screen to another by these little headsets and missed the freedom of just being able to wonder round and discover things at our pace - and it also took the fun out of it.

We found the headsets very isolating - its difficult to have conversations with family and friends - and therefore this musuem sounds very much like a library. Also worth noting is that the headsets only come in one size so therefore totally unsuitable for younger children as they just slip down.

When you consider we were told that 75% of the exhibition requires the headsets then the least you would expect is that there is proper equipment for everyone, especially a venue that promotes itself as a family attraction.

Young children may also struggle to find the presentations hold their attention as they are presented in factual style akin to a National Geographical programme.

The marketing material is very impressive and glossy and maybe that raises expectations too high.

There is a glossy well-produced family trail brochure for the kids to work through, and it would have been really helpful to have pens and clipboards, but once we were inside the exhibition it was redundant as we couldn't see read it in the darkness.

Also plan your visit as you may want to take into account the ticket price increases at weekends.

There are warnings of the web site of large queues but when we went there was just one family in front of us buying tickets.