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Tuesday, the Egyptian Museum |
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This morning we went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, again accompanied by Mena, our guide. We saw the Nile and a few Cairo landmarks en route. The Egyptian Museum does not allow you to take any camera equipment inside, unfortunately. We were able to take some photos outside, before turning out cameras in. The museum is so big that if you spent a minute at every exhibit, it would take eight months to see it all. We just followed Mena upstairs to the treasures of King Tutankhamen. Considering the size of his tomb, he sure did have a lot crammed in there! This boy king, ruled for eleven years and was only 18 yrs old when he died (or was killed). He was a minor player but has become famous because his tomb is the only one that was not robbed. This is because when Ramses II tomb was built, the debris covered the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb. The best part of the museum was King Tut's treasure room, containing his funeral mask--absolutely incredible. He was encased a further ten times after this, as his mummification was so poor. The Mummy room did rival this though. To see the remains of people who lived 3000 years ago was truly incredible. There are eleven mummified bodies on display. One of the eleven mummies was that of Ramses II. To look directly into the face of one of the Egyptian Pharoahs, although dead was quite humbling. I couldn't help myself thinking about how things were when he was alive and how he would think about the way things are today. He would have probably been just as amazed by the changes that have been made as I would have been to see things the way they were. |
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