My goal was to visit the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was a beautiful, not too hot morning, so I walked the mile to the metro station and headed downtown.
The museum entrance was a bit hard to locate from the metro because of the vast construction site between the metro exit and the museum, but I realized I needed only follow the tour busses and I was there in no time, the tall black iron gates standing guard between me and the immense pink museum.
Inside the museum it could have been 1935, during the heyday of Egyptian antiquity discoveries. Crates stamped with far away locations were stashed here and there, half-unpacked with artifacts and straw peeking out. Labels, very very old labels, numbered many artifacts, but left little in the way of explanation, allowing the visitor's imagination to go wild with theories of "what on earth was this used for?". Papyrus samples had ink so bright that you would think they were only painted the day before.
There was an entire hall of beautifully painted sarcoghagi, small dark rooms of pharoah's jewels, and a long corridor with giant stone heads and statues following your every move!
Of course, I didn't do the entire museum - best to leave the rest for when I have museum hungry visitors!
I understand that there is a new museum being built that will be air conditioned and better suited for preserving the artifacts. There are also hundreds of University students from around the world helping the museum catalogue, label, and preserve the many artifacts - which seem to number in the millions - maybe even googleplexes!
After leaving the museum, I was VERY hungry and dehydrated, so I went to the outdoor patio of the Nile Hilton (just next door) and had an AMAZING cremini mushroom risotto and large bottle of water while I read my book about Egypt. The perfect end to a fantastic little adventure!
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