TO OCT. 14

When it comes to bling-blinged-out digs and an ego-swollen sense of style, the gold-dripped rapper shacks on MTV Cribs have nothing on the burial chamber of the notorious Thutmose III (pictured). A painstakingly detailed re-creation of the New Kingdom pharaoh’s ceremonial resting place—prefaced by the ominous, glowing artifacts that aided him in his dangerous sojourn into the afterlife—constitutes the finale to the blockbuster “The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt,” currently drawing long lines at the National Gallery of Art. And “blockbuster” is certainly the right word. Featuring the largest collection of antiquities (around 115) ever lent by Egypt for display in North America, “The Quest,” with its foreboding graywacke statues of Isis and Osiris, endless cases of glittery grave goods, and adventure-flick plot about cheating death (or at least how various kings and queens tried to rework death’s rules from 1550 B.C. to 332 B.C.), is aimed at the entire brood; think Raiders of the Lost Ark with museum-sore feet. (For a good gross-out, find the calcite canopic jars from Tanis, which held—perhaps still hold?—the innards of Prince Hornakht.) But for all the objets d’or and spooky scarabs, nothing beats the creepy thrills of Thut’s tomb, exquisitely detailed by Madrid’s Factum Arte studios. The first-known complete copy of the pharaoh’s Amduat (the text engraved in the walls of Thutmose’s crypt) tells the story of his perilous journey from death to resurrection. In hieroglyph, the tale is more puzzle than prose, but this much is apparent: The ending is a doozy. Tomb-raid from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, to Monday, Oct. 14, at the National Gallery of Art, 4th and Constitution Avenue NW. Free. (202) 737-4215. (Sean Daly)