Egypt Day 2 Update

When you can't take pictures someplace, it's easy to forget you were there, especially when you're seeing so much. I almost forgot that prior to going to the perfume store on Day 2, we made a little stop at the Egyptian Museum. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed inside, so we don't have any pictures.

The last museum we saw was the British Museum. The Egyptian Museum has a lot of stuff, so much that it would take you something like a year to get through if you spent one minute looking at each artifact on display. For every item on display, there is another item in a crate in the basement.

The Egyptian Museum is organized chronologically so that if you go to the left after walking through the entrance, you'll start with the Old Kingdom and eventually make your way around to the New Kingdom. This is where the organization ends. Many of the displays have no explanation or simply aren't labeled at all. To add discomfort to confusion, the Museum has no air conditioning and relies on open windows for ventilation. Sweat ran down our backs every time we stopped to look at an item. It really made us appreciate the organization of the British Museum.

Hany pointed out a few items of particular interest. Many of them we'd see reproduced in the souvenir shops we'd visit. There was a wood carving in particularly good shape of a scrip that we'd see over and over again.

After showing us the highlights from the first floor, we were off to explore the second floor, which is entirely devoted to Tutankhamen. All the artifacts from his tomb that Howard Carter found are here. The highlight was a small, air conditioned room housing the greatest treasures from the tomb including the burial mask and the golden sarcophagi. The rest of the upper floor was filled with various beds and chairs along with other artifacts.

After finishing the second floor, we had a little free time to wander around the museum. Hers and I went into the mummy room where the bodies of 12 Egyptian Pharaohs were on display. The room was hot and crowded. Hers and I made it around the outside first and then made our way to the two bodies in the center. One of the mummies was that of Ramses II. As Egyptian Pharaohs go, he's kind of a big deal. He ruled for over 60 years and fathered over 100 children. He also did a lot of building in his time and is one of the greatest Pharaohs in Egyptian history. His gray hair indicates just how old he was.

After the mummy room, we walked around the lower floor for a bit. The mummy of Queen Hatshepsut was supposed to be on display at the museum, but our guide wasn't much help (he insisted that it wasn't on display at all). Hatshepsut was the only woman to rule as Pharaoh so the recent identification of her mummy was a huge deal. No one was really sure how she died (many thought her jealous step-son who wanted to be Pharaoh might have killed her off). It appears she died of old age. Unfortunately, we never found her mummy.