Our Visit To The Egyptian Museum
One of the main reasons that people are interested in visiting Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is due to the fact that all of the artifacts and treasure that was found in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber at the Valley of The Kings is located here at the museum.
So, as you can probably imagine, the curators of the museum leave the “best till last”. In other words you work your way around the museum until eventually you reach the section that is dedicated to the “Boy King”, Tutankhamun.
And…I have to be honest, it really is quite amazing. You will see the jewellery, precious stones and gold that was found in the tomb along with the outer casings of the mummy. By that I mean that the mummified body was placed into wooden “suits” decorated with gold and precious stones. The “suits” were essentially images of Tutankhamun’s body.
But there wasn’t’ just one, there seemed to be a number of them and they fitted into each other just like Russian dolls do.
There were also huge wooden boxes, (I just cant’ remember what they were called) that the mummy was placed into. Huge boxes, again covered in gold leaf and semi-precious stones, and again, the boxes fitted into the previous one, like Russian dolls.
They were pretty big and looked very heavy so goodness knows how they did it. Mind you that’s the same question you ask yourself throughout Egypt. In the enormous temples and sites, at the Pyramids and here at the Egyptian Museum. How on earth did they do it?
Of course the centre piece of the exhibits is the mask of Tutankhamun. The one that you see in every article or mention of him. Gold leafed, encrusted in semi-precious stone. A beautiful sight to see and well worth the visit to the museum.
As I have said in earlier posts, if at the end of your Nile cruise you can afford the time to fly up to Cairo then you will not be disappointed.
We left the museum from what appeared to be the side of the building and walked slowly around the building towards the entrance. You will pass a very nice outdoor cafe that is attached to the museum and it would be a great place to stop and catch your thoughts after your visit.
As I mentioned before, the museum is beside the old National Ruling Party’s headquarters which was set on fire during the Revolution and it feels strange to be walking past this reminder of the old regime as you leave one of the world’s most visited museums.
We had been invited to take lunch by the manager of the Conrad Hotel in downtown Cairo so we set about locating our driver for the short trip over to the hotel.
As we drove slowly out of Tahir Square it was hard to link this peaceful (but very busy) centre with the scenes we all saw during the days of the Revolution.
More tomorrow…
