Soggy Moose Travels : A DAY AT THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM AND STREET FOOD

2/3 Cairo

A free day in Cairo to explore on our own:

We were up early, got some additional cash and had breakfast here at the Hotel. The coffee is good and rich. The breakfast breads were good and sweet and the meats were nice and lean. Lynn tried several local dishes and reported all to be good.

We went back to the room to pack up and leave our bags for transfer to our next room.

We met with our local Viking representative and Hassan, our Egyptologist and got squared away on our plan for our day. We were also simply able to transfer our luggage and get into our new room which has a view of the Nile.

We walked about 100 yards, if that, to the entrance of the Egyptian Museum, purchased our tickets and photo pass ( a separate fee of about $2.65 to take pictures), passed through security and we were overwhelmed by the the enormity of this museum.

My first stop was the Narmer Palate, Narmer was the first king to unite North and South Egypt. Simply amazing to see an ancient item with such great significance. The palate shows Narmer smiting his enemies and bringing Egypt together as one.

We made our way clockwise on the first floor, starting with the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and then New Kingdom. Then we climbed the stairs to the second floor and visited in a clockwise fashion. More displays of the Middle Kingdom, followed by the Royal Tombs of Tanis, and the Tutankhamen Galleries. There are no photos allowed in the Tutankhamen

Galleries and, yes, there are guards there enforcing the no photo rule. What really makes Tutankhamen famous is that his tomb, when discovered, was totally in-tack and undisturbed.

Soon we came upon a great display of many Ushabtis, these are small statues sent with a king to the afterlife. These little statutes will help you in the afterlife by doing the chores. It is believed they are somewhat the basis for the Soccer’s Apprentice scene in Fantasia.

Next we paid the additional fee (100 Egyptian Pounds) to see the Royal Mummies. For me this was an amazing experience to see Rameses II mummy, among others. There is no photography allowed of these exhibits.

We also visited the animal mummy room. Sometimes a pet would be mummified and sent with one to the afterlife, other large animals would be sent with you as food for the journey.

There is so much to see in this museum that I personally feel a full day may easily be devoted to this attraction. Our entry fee and photo pass and the Royal Mummies was about $23 USD for the both of us, a great deal.

Before we knew it, we had spent a good five hours in the Museum. We then made our way back to the hotel and freshened up and struck out on a quest to find Felfela, a local shawarma takeaway. We did find it and got beef and chicken shawarmas at a total cost of 38 Egyptian Pounds or about $2 USD. They were great and might have to return for another. We were only approached twice by people wanting to help us. Sadly one must be assertive and forceful with a “no thank you”.

We enjoyed watching the sunset over the Nile.

We will be getting our selves organized tonight and ready for tomorrow as we are visiting the pyramids at Sakkara and Giza.

We are only receiving one bottle of water per person per-day so we made a run for water and found a small kiosk across the street and got three 1.5 liter bottles for about $1.25. we learned the Egyptian Pound recently dropped significantly in value to our advantage.