Museums

It's about a $10 to $12 cab ride, not including tip and extra fees (such as the $1 surcharge between 4 and 8 PM on weekdays).

But you really don't need to take a taxi. Getting there by subway from Penn Station is very, very easy.

You take the Uptown C train (of the A-C-E, the blue line) from Penn Station (34th Street) to 81st Street. The 81st Street & Central Park West Station comes out right in front of the museum. In fact, the walls of the 81st Street & Central Park West Station are covered with tile murals of dinosaurs and other animals, so it's really easy not to miss your stop, seeing as the train passes right by the murals.

To get back, you take the same train -- the C -- but Downtown this time.

Several subway lines stop near The New Museum (at 235 Bowery, at Prince Street): the B-D-F-M (the orange line) to Broadway-Lafayette, the F to 2nd Avenue, the N-R-Q(the yellow line) to Canal Street, the N or R to Prince Street, the 6 (of the 4-5-6, the dark green line) to Spring Street, and the J-Z (the brown line) to the Bowery.

Which one to take depends on where you're coming from.

Your guess is as good as anyone's. If you read certain popular contemporary literature as non-fiction instead of fiction, then I guess you can fairly make the claim of yes, since it's not likely that the floor of the Louvre will be destroyed or dug up anytime soon to check the veracity of that claim. However, for those who picked up their copy of that certain popular literature, to which this answer previously referred, in the Fiction section of their local bookstore, it should be noted that, as exciting, engrossing, and entertaining as the story is, there is no evidence to support the claim put forth by the novel in regard to the final resting place of Mary Magdalene. To be fair, however, it should be mentioned that there is no evidence to support that it's not true either. However, the burden of proof lies in proving what did happen rather than what didn't. So, as far as history, most churches, those who are capable of separating fact from fantasy, Louvre Officials, Historians, Theologians, Archeologists, and the French Government are concerned, until proven otherwise, the remains of Mary Magdalene are not underneath the Louvre in a grave covertly marked by the inverted pyramid.

Okay, the person that typed the sentence right above me is stupid you know why? When Mary Magdalene realized that she was pregnant with the baby of christ ,her and someone else fled out of the holy land and traveled to France when she got their she had her baby and the people of France were going through something called the Witch Hunt where they believed that all women are bad and they killed Mary magdalene and put her in a sacred tombstone and supposedly that tombstone IS under the pyramid inside the Louvre.

The part of the puzzle that I don't understand is couldn't someone at the Louvre find out if the sarcophagus is actually there? Someone at some time must have put it there, if it really is there, and I'm certain they would have told subsequent managers of the museum that it was there. And if that's not the case, couldn't someone just go and check?? Maybe I'm wrong, and there is no way to enter the basement of the Louvre. But it would be odd if the basement was completely sealed off.

Discussion:

Okay this is not a public chat site...as some sites that encourage such stress-reduction methods are. Anybody who would like to answer this question should come forward and straightaway find himself/herself doing so. We teen researchers are being misled by these unusually embarrassing comments on each others' answers!!!

-Durjoy, 16, India

"Magdalene" is derived from the Hebrew word "Migdol" or "Tyre". The English word for "Tyre" is derived from Israel's ancient name for Tyre or Rock (Tsor) and it is the word from which English gets 'tower', 'tyre', 'tour', 'town', 'turret'. "Migdol" or "Magdala" was a nick-name the ancient Israelites gave to the people and cities of Tyre. In circa 940 BC, Solomon gave twenty cities in Northern Israel to Hiram II of Tyre. The latter was actually displeased by this according to the Biblical record. These cities, and other Phoenician cities, got the nickname because of the towers the Phoenicians traditionally built on their cities (to defend the precious merchandise contained therein).

One such place was Magdala on Lake Capernaum (Galilee, Tiberius). However, there seems to be little evidence of a tower in that particular case. There probably would not have been towers (or turrets) there because the commercial treasure in that place was fish in the lake. The Phoenicians were animal traders and fish farmers as well. "Tyre" or "Phoenicia" were bywords for commerce.

The real question is why a Phoenician woman would be chosen to be the world's representative at the Garden of the Tomb when Jesus resurrected. Firstly, in the Mediterranean world, Phoenicians were the most evil people in the world. Greek playwright Menander always used Phoenicians as the baddie. The Syro-Phoenician woman who pleaded with Jesus to heal her daughter from a demon, with Jesus seeming extremely reticent - hardly the 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild' of the lullaby - was obviously seen as a baddie in that episode. Of course, that was part of Jesus' message. He came to save the sinners. He consented to healing that woman's daughter and Mary Magdalene is probably that daughter.

What most people overlook is that two ancient Israelite prophets, Elijah and Elisha, both resurrected a Phoenician woman's son (Apologies, not "daughter" as said in a previous edit) in the 9th century BC. That was at a time when Israel was rejecting the messages of Elijah and Elisha. A similar situation existed in circa 29 AD when Jesus met that Syro-Phoenician woman.

The obvious conclusion from all this is that just as Elijah and Elisha resurrected the dead son of a Phoenician woman, the Son of God resurrected and was first seen by a (very sinful, baddie) Phoenician woman's daughter. One may say this is all rubbish but it is difficult to see how, why or under what circumstances a succession of Jewish scribes between 800 BC and 50-60 AD put such odd and very un-Jewish stories or fables in the collection of books known as the Bible. One would have thought the examples of Elijah and Elisha, and the embarrassing reflection on Israel, would have been long deleted from the record. It is strange that they were retained, even after Jesus referred to them when he castigated the adherents at the synagogue in Capernaum.

The wisest course of action is to accept the historicity of these accounts, not worry about where she was buried and recognise that Mary Magdalene confirms the accuracy of the accounts about the Resurrection of Jesus, hence the events leading to that resurrection, i.e., the death and burial and the events leading to the death of Jesus, i.e., in His Ministry etc., etc., back to His (miraculous) birth as a human and back further all the way back to His Eternal existence as Creator. The whereabouts of the Magdalene's body is unimportant compared to these other matters. Most likely, the bodies of Mary, her mother, Elisha (Elijah ascended to heaven to return to us at a later date, probably quite soon) are resting undisturbed in places that only the Lord will find at "The Resurrection" of all believers.