In keeping with such vast edifices as the Louvre, British Museum, and Smithsonian Institute, the salmon pink Egyptian Museum (located in Tahrir Square) is a monstrous building. It is however beginning to show its age and is definitely a bit tatty around the edges. Despite its impressive size, there is insufficient space at the current site to showcase the plethora of historical artefacts collected from Pharaonic Egypt and a new state of the art facility is under construction near Giza. (Quite how the ongoing troubles have affected these plans is anyone’s guess, but eventually Tahrir Square should be free to focus on demonstrations and shaping the future of the country without having to worry about its rich heritage).
The Egyptian Museum is a seething mass of people. Even now, just as the museum opens, there are huge numbers of tourists and their tour guides. The one thing that Egypt has in abundance is tour guides. I’m sure they are very knowledgeable and their main goal is to share their love of Egyptian history with guests in their country. The reality is that they are an aggressive bunch, desperate to bag a tourist group. Christi and I are not much of a catch and to be honest we don’t want to be caught. The guides are most indignant that we shun their services, but my capacity for understanding several thousand years worth of history in a couple of hours is limited. Therefore we resort to our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook to Egypt and follow their highlights tour. (By the way, if anyone from Lonely Planet is reading this blog then feel free to make a donation for our next trip – which might be awhile, actually, as we wait for Alexander [our son] to get a little better at traveling).
We begin with the mummy room, which displays 11 desiccated bodies. Staring at the remains of these people that lived thousands of years ago is simultaneously beguiling and a little creepy. The two most impressive are Seqenre Taa and Ramses II (Ramses the Great). Seqenre Taa was a pharaoh of the 17th dynasty and what’s most disturbing about this guy is that his face and fingers appear contorted in pain – as if he was mummified alive. Ramses II of the 19th dynasty – perhaps the mightiest of all pharaohs partly because, remarkably, he lived well into his 90s. His body is in amazing shape; there are tufts of red hair, teeth, and mummified skin visible. I could easily imagine this guy opening his eyes and saying hello he looks so life-like. Of course if that happened we might have to bring in Brendan Fraser to coax him back to sleep again.
Next up is the famous statue of Rahotep (brother of the pharaoh Cheops) and his wife Nofret dates to the 26th century BC (4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom to be entirely accurate). It is in immaculate condition because like the treasures of Tutankhamun (which only dates to the 14th century BC [18th dynasty of the New Kingdom for those who can’t get enough Egyptology]) they were not pillaged in antiquity but survived intact until the modern era. Even older than the Rahotep and Nofret statue is the Narmer Palette which dates to the 3200 BC. Yet again this stone tablet is in pristine condition. This piece has great historical significance because it depicts the Pharaoh Narmer wearing the crowns of both Upper and Lower Egypt indicating that he had unified the country and set the scene for 3,000 years and 30 dynasties of Pharaonic rule.
And so to the most impressive artefacts of all: the funerary treasures of Tutankhamun. He was not much of a pharaoh by all accounts, perhaps because he died young (or was murdered). He is of course the most famous because of the treasures found in tomb by Egyptologist, Howard Carter, in 1922. So the story goes, when Carter opened the tomb he found a ramshackle collection of artefacts that suggest the tomb was completed in a hurry during the mummification process. The most famous piece is the Death Mask. It is made of beaten gold, weighs 11 kg and was placed over the bandaged head of the dead pharaoh. The mask is a portrait of the boy-king so that his ‘Ba’ (or soul) could recognize him in the afterlife. The mask of Tutankhamun features the nemes head dress, pleated false beard, and broad collar, while the two protector goddesses of Upper and Lower Egypt (a vulture and cobra respectively) are perched on his brow. The funerary treasures of Tutankhamun are varied and impressive, including his gold coffin (which weighs 100 kg) and lots of jewelry plus the canopic jars containing the pharoah’s lungs, liver, intestines, and stomach which he would need in the afterlife.
The Egyptian Museum is very impressive, but the huge number of people and myriad facts and figures means my interest wanes after a few hours and I persuade Christi to forsake McDonald’s in favor of a late KFC lunch. Unfortunately the dessicated chicken wings I’m given remind me way too much of the mummy of Ramses II. End the day back at the Ethiopian embassy to pick up our passports, which are now sporting nice new stamps. Sudan remains a mystery, but at least we can literally step back in time and visit Ethiopia (the country uses the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar and are about 7 years behind the rest of us).
Blog post by Roderick Phillips, author of Weary Heart – a gut-wrenching tale of love and test tubes.
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