THE ANCIENT WORLD: Unlocking the Middle East
THE ANCIENT WORLD: Unlocking the Middle East
July 15, 2024 - August 31, 2025
Over the past six years, the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, in partnership with the Richard Nixon Foundation, has been observing historically significant milestones of the Nixon Administration as part of its 50th anniversary. This year we are acknowledging the conclusion of the Yom Kippur War and President Nixon’s subsequent trip to the Middle East in 1974. To commemorate this, we will be opening a temporary exhibit, The Ancient World: Unlocking the Middle East.
In this special exhibit, visitors will be immersed in the history of the region up to 1979. They will visit a street market in Jerusalem, walk through the courtyard of a Persian palace, and enter the tomb inside an Egyptian pyramid. Studying the ancient Middle Eastern societies of Israel, Persia, and Egypt can help to unlock the complex relationships between those nation-states in the early 20th century. Moving from the ancient to the modern, museum visitors may reflect on the beginning of Western interest in and the exploration of the region.
The many regional conflicts of the 20th century will be explored. Visitors will see the original hotline equipment linking Washington and Moscow, which President Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev used during the tense days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In the conclusion of the exhibit, museum visitors will exit through Camp David and learn about the work done during the Camp David Accords and the Arab-Israeli peace process in 1979.
