My school paid for a tour guide to take us around Cairo and visit some of the touristy things they knew we would all be dying to see! We had three days of tours, so the next three posts will be about each day.
On the first day of the tours, we were all picked up by our school bus around 8am (which is really early when you are still dealing with jet lag) and after we were all packed in, we stopped to pick up our guide, Sharif. Sharif is an Egyptologist who has been in the field for 30 years. We had no idea what a wealth of knowledge we would soon be fed. When our guide boarded the bus, he informed us that today we would be going the Egyptian Museum and afterwards, to Coptic Cairo. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside of the museum, so we can only verbally share our experiences, rather than visually.
At the museum, we traveled through the different eras of Egypt's history. Sharif pointed out key pieces of art from each important time period. It was so awe inspiring to see these ancient artifacts and pieces of art that had such precision....and were still in magnificent shape, as if made yesterday, but were actually made anywhere from 5,000 to 1,000 years ago! Sharif knew everything about each piece of art. For example, when you see a statue from Ancient Egypt with the man's left foot forward and hands at his sides, it means that the statue was made when the man, Pharaoh, or king was still alive. If their feet are together, the statue is a symbol that the man is no longer living. We also learned that statues of Pharaohs were made as art, therefore, they depicted the Pharaoh as he wished he looked. They were not depictions of the Pharaoh as the way he truly looked. As such, a statue of a Pharaoh might have chiseled abs and broad shoulders, but in reality, he could be a fat, short, man. Sharif was also able to tell us about the different symbols represented in the art. I learned that only kings and queens had their names in hieroglyphs written in cartouches and common folk wrote their names without one. We learned that the cobra on the forehead, seen in many statues or masks, is meant to be like a third eye, an all seeing eye. We learned about so much of the symbolism used in Ancient Egyptian art. It is so much information that it is hard to remember it all.
After going through the old civilization, we made our way up to the boy king, King Tut's, exhibit. We learned that King Tut actually did not have very many accomplishment's in his time as King and the only reason he is so famous to us today is because his tomb is the only one that was found un-raided. We got to see his tomb, his solid gold sarcophagus, and his famous mask. (and we learned that the stuff traveling in America is replicas....) It was amazing to see the quality of the workmanship of all of his jewelry and his mask. Breath-taking!
After King Tut's exhibit, we looked through some ancient scrolls written on papyrus. Sharif explained one important one to us, which was a depiction of the day of judgement, as the Ancient Egyptian's believed it to be.
Then.....THE MUMMY ROOM!!!!
Sharif was not allowed to follow us into the mummy room, so we only had ourselves to look around and explore. The mummies were crazy. Some of them had fingernails. Some of them had hair! One had a smile! We saw the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, and King Ramesses II. And several others. There was about 12 mummies in there all together.
If you noticed, there was ticket prices on each ticket. For the mummy room and admission to the museum it was 160le. Which is only $27!!!! They were charging more than that in the states to see the King Tut exhibit....to only see replicas. Crazy! We spent a good 3 hours walking around the non-airconditioned museum...and we only looked at key pieces. Sharif said that if you spent one minute looking at every piece inside the musuem for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take you 9 months to go through everything!!!!!
Coptic Cairo
After the museum, we headed over to Coptic Cairo. Coptic Cairo is a section of Old Cairo that encompasses Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. We toured two of the older churches, one Coptic and one Jewish. We learned about the history of each and the design and architecture. In the Ben-Ezra Synagogue, there was a shrine marking the spot where Baby Moses was thought to be found.
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| The Egyptian Museum |
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| Our Ticket |
After going through the old civilization, we made our way up to the boy king, King Tut's, exhibit. We learned that King Tut actually did not have very many accomplishment's in his time as King and the only reason he is so famous to us today is because his tomb is the only one that was found un-raided. We got to see his tomb, his solid gold sarcophagus, and his famous mask. (and we learned that the stuff traveling in America is replicas....) It was amazing to see the quality of the workmanship of all of his jewelry and his mask. Breath-taking!
After King Tut's exhibit, we looked through some ancient scrolls written on papyrus. Sharif explained one important one to us, which was a depiction of the day of judgement, as the Ancient Egyptian's believed it to be.
Then.....THE MUMMY ROOM!!!!
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| Mummy Room Ticket |
If you noticed, there was ticket prices on each ticket. For the mummy room and admission to the museum it was 160le. Which is only $27!!!! They were charging more than that in the states to see the King Tut exhibit....to only see replicas. Crazy! We spent a good 3 hours walking around the non-airconditioned museum...and we only looked at key pieces. Sharif said that if you spent one minute looking at every piece inside the musuem for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take you 9 months to go through everything!!!!!
Coptic Cairo
After the museum, we headed over to Coptic Cairo. Coptic Cairo is a section of Old Cairo that encompasses Coptic Christian churches and Jewish synagogues. We toured two of the older churches, one Coptic and one Jewish. We learned about the history of each and the design and architecture. In the Ben-Ezra Synagogue, there was a shrine marking the spot where Baby Moses was thought to be found.
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