"For she was a woman of surpassing beauty, and at that time, when she was in the prime of her youth, she was most striking; she also possessed a most charming voice and a knowledge of how to make herself agreeable to every one."

-- Cassius Dio,

Rome historian

PHILADELPHIA -- "She" is Cleopatra, one of history's most famous female rulers and the subject of "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt," a fascinating new exhibit premiering at the Franklin Institute here.

If all you know about Cleopatra is what you learned from the 1963 Hollywood movie starring Elizabeth Taylor, then prepare to be highly enlightened by the amount of information in this exhibition, which opened June 5 and ends Jan. 2.

Be prepared to spend at least 90 minutes, probably longer on the weekends when attendance tends to be heavier. There are 140 artifacts from a variety of sources, including the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, cultural institutions such as the Egyptian Museum in Berlin and private collectors. Among the artifacts are ancient coins that archaeologists believe bear Cleopatra's likeness. And guess what? She looked nothing like Elizabeth Taylor.

Still, like the tale of King Tut (the Franklin Institute hosted an exhibition on the boy Pharoah three years ago), Cleopatra's is an intriguing story wonderfully told not only with artifacts but also through video clips, audio narration, maps and photographs.

"Based on our success with King Tut and through our own research, Egypt and Egyptian themes tend to resonate very well with the American public. Why that's the case we don't know, but nevertheless, they continue to be interested," said Troy Collins, senior vice president, programs, marketing and business development for The Franklin Institute.

"Cleopatra is one of these very timeless, iconic pieces of history. ... People think they know a lot about [her], but once they know the true history and the true story, they become even more fascinated."

Visitors to the exhibition first encounter a room with a glass floor and blue and green lighting moving around the walls. It gives the feel of being underwater, where many of the artifacts were discovered. Beneath the floor is sand and items such as urns and portions of statues. They next enter a room where a brief film on Cleopatra is narrated by the Queen herself. (Actually, it's an actress.)

Egypt's last ruler was of Greek descent and a member of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. While her body has never been found and no one really knows what she looked like, she's been described by many ancient historians as "beautiful" and "intelligent." The Romans obliterated all traces of her when they conquered Egypt in 30 B.C. Still, enough has been discovered to put together Cleopatra's life, a life less ordinary.

She was not the first Cleopatra, but actually Cleopatra VII. She was 17 when she became Pharoah and ruled the country with her younger brother, whom she married. She was well-educated and fluent in Ethiopian, Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek and ancient Egyptian. She had one son with Julius Caesar (Caesarion or little Caesar) and three children with Mark Antony, including a set of twins.

Perhaps the artifact that gives the most insight into this mysterious monarch is a papyrus from the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, which bears her handwriting. It was a document granting a tax exemption for a businessman and friend of Mark Antony. To it, Cleopatra added the word "ginesthoi" -- which means "make it happen."

What makes "Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt" even more interesting is not just the story of this beguiling ruler, but the story of how the archaeologists discovered many of the artifacts on display. Franck Goddio, French underwater archaeologist and director of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, and Zahi Hawass, pre-eminent Egyptian archaeologist and secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, have spent decades trying to piece together the life and death of Egypt's last monarch.

Dr. Goddio and his team discovered all the items in the first gallery of the exhibition, including portions of an Egyptian temple, the head from a marble statue of the god Sarapis; a bronze statuette of the goddess Osiris; a bronze helmet from about the fourth century B.C.; bronze arrowheads; and a sphinx believed to resemble Cleopatra's father, King Ptolemy XII.

The largest of Dr. Goddio's finds in the exhibition are two 16-foot-tall statues of a Ptolemaic king, aka a Colossus, and a queen carved from red granite. The statues, which together weigh about 9.4 tons, were discovered in five huge pieces in the Bay of Aboukir in the sunken city of Heracleion near Alexandria in 2000. They were pulled from the water and put back together like a puzzle. Video clips of the underwater find and its recovery are part of the exhibition.

A crane was used to get the statues into The Franklin, where floors beneath them had to be reinforced and an intricate pulley system was used to secure them in place. In all, the process took about eight hours.

The second part of the exhibition deals with the search for where Cleopatra and Mark Antony might have been buried and focuses on the Temple of Taposiris Magna, 30 miles west of Alexandria, where Dr. Hawass has been working with Kathleen Martinez, a scholar from the Dominican Republic. They've discovered bronze vessels, 22 coins bearing her image, an alabaster statue head believed to depict Cleopatra and golden masks.

Hollywood's influence is acknowledged at the end of the exhibition, where the images of a number of cinematic Cleos are displayed, including the aforementioned Ms. Taylor, Vivien Leigh ("Caesar and Cleopatra," 1945), Rhonda Fleming ("Serpent of the Nile," 1953), Leonor Varela ("Cleopatra," 1999) and Lyndsey Marshal (HBO's "Rome," 2005-2007).

While The Franklin Institute does not release exact attendance numbers, Mr. Collins said he is pleased with the turnout for the museum's latest look at an Egyptian icon.

"We're very happy with the show, and we expect to continue that success."

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