Museum Threatened Antiquities Sites

Demolition workers have begun pulling down the concrete framework of an unfinished museum that was to be constructed only 200 meters from the famous Zoser Step Pyramid near the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt.

The Egyptian culture minister, Farouq Hosni, toured the site and decided that the project posed an esthetic threat to the landscape of the area, 15 miles south of central Cairo on the west bank of the Nile.

Archeologists warned that the museum could also hinder further excavation at a potentially rich archeological area.

A day before the minister ordered the destruction of the structure, a Late Ptolemaic sarcophagus and a clay coffin with a skeleton visible inside were discovered in the area.

Trip protection: The American Automobile Association has begun providing automatic trip-cancellation insurance to members who book AAA vacation packages to California, Florida and Nevada, and plans to offer it on other packages, too.

The insurance guarantees a full refund if the trip is canceled for any reason up to departure time.

Traditionally such insurance has been offered at a charge based on the overall cost of the trip - perhaps $40 for an $800 package to Orlando.

Travel agencies usually encourage clients to buy such insurance, but many people choose to take the gamble and decline insurance because of its extra cost.

In recent years, higher cancellation penalties and nonrefundable airline tickets have raised the stakes when travelers change their plans, and AAA says it is offering the new guarantee as a way to increase the value of its membership program.

News notes: Amtrak had announced it would make certain tickets nonrefundable - mostly on discounted long-distance fares - but has changed its mind and will simply charge a $20 fee if a ticket is returned for a refund.

That’s the same fee the railroad will charge for revising a ticket. Information: (800) 872-7245.

Los Angeles has a new toll-free hotline that offers tourism information and booking services for hotels and car rentals. Call (800) 228-2452.

The owners of the Sugarbush and Killington ski areas in New England have announced plans to merge their operating companies to create the American Skiing Company, which they say will be the largest ski operating company in North America.

Phone home: A new product from AT&T Wireless makes it possible for international travelers to make calls to and receive calls from 35 countries beyond North America.

Cellular telephones in North America use an operating system called Time Division Multiple Access.

Overseas, cell phones use a different system, known as Global Special Mobile, or GSM. The new credit-card-sized AT&T Cellcard, when placed in a slot on a GSM cellular telephone, allows travelers to make and receive telephone calls using their regular cellular telephone numbers.

The card has a computer chip that contains all the customer’s cellular phone information, including features like call waiting and voice mail.

Something fishy: Soupfin sharks, green sea turtles and a gallery filled with delicate jellyfish are a few of the attractions on display in the new $57 million wing of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif.

The 100,000-square-foot addition, called the Outer Bay, offers visitors a view of an open sea habitat through an acrylic pane 15 feet high and 54 feet long.

The huge panel looks onto the Outer Bay’s centerpiece, a million-gallon “indoor ocean” that recreates the outer reaches of Monterey Bay where it meets the open Pacific.

The tank will also be home to California barracuda, stingrays and yellowfin tuna. Information: (408) 648-4800.

Let’s Lego: Scenes from Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Paris rendered in little plastic bricks are among the attractions of a new Legoland theme park near Windsor, England, about 20 miles west of London.

The 150-acre park is based on the Legoland that opened in Denmark in 1968.

Five main activity centers will be interspersed with quiet areas. The Imagination Center is the focal point of the park, where visitors can experiment with uncounted numbers of Lego bricks.

Miniland, where the city scenes are, uses 25 million Lego bricks to create 800 buildings and 700 models of trains, cars, ships, people, bridges and fountains.

A new home: If you were the only one of your kind in the world, chances are you’d get special treatment.

That’s the case with Kekaimalu, the world’s only known wholpin (half Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and half false killer whale), who now lives in Wholpin Bay at Sea Life Park in Hawaii and puts on a show three times a day for visitors.

Audience members are often invited to touch the wholpin and to play “volleyball” with her by throwing large beach balls into the tank and waiting for Kekaimalu to “serve” them back. For more information on Oahu’s Sea Life Park, call (800) 767-8046.

Museum of the month: What may be the world’s only underwear museum has opened in California. The Frederick’s of Hollywood Lingerie Museum, located in the company’s main store on Hollywood Boulevard, displays undies through the decades, including some seen in movies.