Before class this morning, Caity and I headed to the Egyptian Museum. I had been sick when the rest of our group went and I was dying to go (plus Caity wanted to see everything again and was nice enough to go with me), so we headed to downtown Cairo to get to the museum just as it was opening.
The ancient Egyptian architecture, jewelry, and artifacts were absolutely stunning. We couldn't take pictures inside, although I snuck one of this adorable kitten sleeping on a coffin.
My first stop of the morning was the mummy room. It was creepy but kind of cool - there were a lot of mummified pharaohs in there in various stages of "decay." Technically they weren't decaying because of how carefully they were embalmed, but it's still hard to look at a graying skeleton and think, "Wow, he's holding up well!" I lingered for a few minutes to read the descriptions of each pharaoh before leaving the room for safer, less haunted areas.
The actual museum had artifacts everywhere. If Hogwarts was a poorly organized and poorly labeled museum, it would look pretty similar to what I saw this morning. The displays (if you could call them displays) were laid out haphazardly, sometimes by era, sometimes by artifact type, and sometimes by ruler. Most of the time there were descriptions in broken English (I suspect the Arabic descriptions weren't much better, unfortunately), but many sad pieces were left to stand on their own. However, the actual artifacts were incredible enough that I stopped minding the lack of historical context after a while.
Some of my favorites: Nefertiti's jewelry (enormous collection in a room that was actually air-conditioned!). An area I nicknamed "Valley of the Kings" (sorry, Luxor) that had enormous statues spread out in a large area surrounded by stairs. A section with artifacts from Ramses II, including a reference to the Israelites (amazing Biblical history right there). A whole aisle devoted to Greco-Roman influences that made me feel like I was on the wrong continent. Coffin Cat, of course (see above)!
I'd love to go back with a guide and spend hours going through the museum again, this time with the historical framework to understand each piece I saw. Oh well - I'm sure I'll be back in Cairo someday soon!
The ancient Egyptian architecture, jewelry, and artifacts were absolutely stunning. We couldn't take pictures inside, although I snuck one of this adorable kitten sleeping on a coffin.
My first stop of the morning was the mummy room. It was creepy but kind of cool - there were a lot of mummified pharaohs in there in various stages of "decay." Technically they weren't decaying because of how carefully they were embalmed, but it's still hard to look at a graying skeleton and think, "Wow, he's holding up well!" I lingered for a few minutes to read the descriptions of each pharaoh before leaving the room for safer, less haunted areas.
The actual museum had artifacts everywhere. If Hogwarts was a poorly organized and poorly labeled museum, it would look pretty similar to what I saw this morning. The displays (if you could call them displays) were laid out haphazardly, sometimes by era, sometimes by artifact type, and sometimes by ruler. Most of the time there were descriptions in broken English (I suspect the Arabic descriptions weren't much better, unfortunately), but many sad pieces were left to stand on their own. However, the actual artifacts were incredible enough that I stopped minding the lack of historical context after a while.
Some of my favorites: Nefertiti's jewelry (enormous collection in a room that was actually air-conditioned!). An area I nicknamed "Valley of the Kings" (sorry, Luxor) that had enormous statues spread out in a large area surrounded by stairs. A section with artifacts from Ramses II, including a reference to the Israelites (amazing Biblical history right there). A whole aisle devoted to Greco-Roman influences that made me feel like I was on the wrong continent. Coffin Cat, of course (see above)!
I'd love to go back with a guide and spend hours going through the museum again, this time with the historical framework to understand each piece I saw. Oh well - I'm sure I'll be back in Cairo someday soon!
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