Today we hired a guide to take us on a tour of the City, and no better place to start than the Egyptian Museum. Actually, the guide was telling us how both she and her husband had had to retrain as teachers after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution because English speaking tourist numbers plummeted. Egypt is still popular for other Arab nations but the guide said she longs for the day when she can give up teaching English History and Geography at the British School to Cairean children (she is Cairean herself). Though I reckon as a result she knows more about British history than I certainly do!
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| Under the lid of the sarcophagus are also hidden carvings |
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| Apparently this museum's central atrium was built to its specific height in order to showcase this huge colossus of Amenhotep III and his wife Tiy |
After checking out the sarcophagi we headed straight to the Amarna room, which was actually of most interest to me. If you are ever going to visit Egypt I'd totally recommend reading Michelle Moran's two books Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen, which are historical fiction and give you a fantastic summary of the 18th and 19th dynasties.
Basically, Akhenaten (1352-1336 BC), who was also known as the 'heretic pharaoh', changed his name from Amenhotep IV to reflect his change of worship from many gods including Amun - the King of the Gods - to only one god Aten, which is the disc of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, which was originally an aspect of the god Ra (the sun god).
The colossus above shows King Akhenaten in a traditional pose, but many aspects are different from the traditional royal sculptures, including his odd long face and sagging body. No one knows why Akhenaten chose to look like this - perhaps it is to look like Shu, the god of light and air, or maybe even to represent all humanity as a male/female figure, or maybe he wanted to look more 'human' and less like a god as is the case with many previous pharaohs.
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| The scratched away portion is where the Pharaoh's name would have been - it's important for each person to have their name inscribed on them so that they would be known and admitted into the afterlife. This one was scratched off by grave robbers. |
The tomb and treasures of this pharaoh, who ruled for only nine years during the 14th Century BC (1336-1327), were discovered in 1922 by English archaeologist Howard Carter. Its well-hidden location in the Valley of the Kings, below the much grander but ransacked tomb of Ramses VI, had prevented tomb robbers and archaeologists from finding it earlier. The incredible contents of this rather modest tomb displayed here can only make you wonder about the fabulous wealth located from the tombs of pharoahs far greater than Tutankhamun.
About 1700 items are spread throughout the Tutankhamun Galleries, and no pictures are allowed to be taken inside the room with the death mask, sarcophagi or jewels. Why I've no idea, but the armed guard keeps you pretty camera shy. The famous death mask is made of solid gold and weighs 11kg and was found covering the mummy of Tutankhamun where it lay inside series of three sarcophagi. The mask is an idealised portrait of the young pharaoh; the eyes are fashioned from obsidian and quartz while the outlines f the eyes and eyebrows are delineated with lapis lazuli.
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| This is not my picture |
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| One of the sarcophagi I managed to sneak a picture of. |
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| The largest of the four huge gilded shrines that fitted inside each other like a set of Russian dolls, encasing at their centre the sarcophagi of the boy pharaoh |
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| The canopic jars that held (hold?) Tutankhamun's internal organs |
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| Tutankhamun's lion throne. Covered with sheet gold and inlaid with glass and semiprecious stones, the wooden throne is supported by spindly lions. The colourful tableau on the back of the chair depicts Tutankhamun's queen placing her hand on his shoulder under the rays of the sun (Aten), the worship of which was a hangover from his father an predecessor Akhenaten, whose throne this once may have been. |
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| Can you guess what this is? |
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| Senet - a game that no-one is yet sure how to play |
Lightning, however, was more interested in the, actually quite gruesome, mummies. First up was the Animal Mummies, which was actually fascinating.
Before the rise of the Pharaonic dynasties in Egypt, animal cults proliferated, and the results can be seen in the battered and dust-covered mummified cats, dogs, rams, jackals, fish, falcon, an ibis, a monkey, and even a baby crocodile mummified inside it's mummified mummy.
The Royal Mummy Room, where tour guides and photographs are also not allowed, houses the bodies of 11 of Egypt's most illustrious pharaoh and queens from the 17th to 21st dynasties, who ruled Egypt between 1650 and 956 BC. They include Seti I; Tuthomosis II, Tuthomosis IV, with his pierced ear and beautifully styled hair; Ramses II with this hair-dye job, and the partially unwrapped Ramses III which was the model for the 1932 Universal movie The Mummy. They all lie in individual glass showcases kept at 22 degrees Celsius.
After some wonderful street food, which cost us an equivalent of £3.50 and left us extremely sated, we drove across town to the Citadel to walk it off.
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| The clock tower on the right was a gift from King Louis-Philippe of France (in thanks for the obelisk that sits in Place de la Concorde in Paris) which was damaged on delivery and never repaired. |
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| The tomb of Mohammed Ali, the mosque's patron |
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| Giza pyramids in the background |
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| Pyramids at Saqqara near Memphis just visible in the background |
Islamic Cairo and Khan ak-Khalili, an ancient bazaar, or marketplace, adjacent to the Al-Hussein Mosque in Islamic Cairo, was our last stop of the day. It dates back to 1385 when Amir Jarkas el-Khalili built a large caravanserai, or khan (hotel for traders, usually the focal point for any surrounding area). It was rebuilt by Sultan Al-Ghouri some 130-odd years later on a much grander scale and as a new commercial complex forming the basis for the network of souqs today, but it was Khalili's name that stuck. Today the Khan is an immense conglomeration of markets and shops where you'll find everything from glassware, leather goods and brassware to books of magic spells and prayer beads. We came away with nothing more than an Egyptian table lamp, and the mandatory magnet, which the Don was pretty thankful for.
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| One of the streets we walked down had 32 mosques on the street alone |
Security in Cairo was everywhere - metal detectors in every hotel lobby, sniffer dogs searching your car at every hotel entrance - not that I ever felt unsafe, but the semi-automatic-machine-gun-armed-guard trailing a few meters behind us through the souq was at another level. I'm assuming it was for our protection, and not because we were a threat to the Caireans?, but I have to say it felt totally unnecessary. But whatever... he got a free yoghurt out of it.
But then it was back to the pool...
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