Egypt Day Four : Cairo, Train

Finally some sleep! A good six hours! We let ourselves sleep in till 10, and even have a leisurely sit down breakfast. There has been one sight that I was dying to see since landing in Cairo, and we saved it for our last day as we wanted to be able to spend a solid 5-6 hours in there. Armed with a very thorough guide to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, we once again took a taxi with no idea on the fare to Midan Tahrir.

The Egyptian Museum is a behemoth structure- the building that stands today is the same building built by the French way back when. To say it is massive would not do it justice- I've visited larger museums, but I don't think I've ever seen one so bursting at the seams with amazing artifacts. We headed first to the Tutankamen wing simply unable to resist the temptation, and spent the next two hours completely blown away by the level of sophistication present 3000 years ago. Tut's tomb remains the only tomb found relatively unscathed by the wrath of thieves, with much of what the young pharaoh was buried with present at time of discovery in 1922. We saw many beds with curved lying areas, chests with drawers (!), and even entertainment in the form of chess sets. Tut was buried with several dozen pairs of underwear, socks and clothing. Mr. R was most impressed with the vessels of wine, labelled with year of manufacture. Almost eery was the deathmask- there cannot be a child remaining who hasn't stared at that obsidian and quartz mask. We were lucky that the day we visited, the crowds in the museum were manageable as we'd heard that there is usually a long line to view the famed mask. I got to spent a solid 5 minutes gazing at it undisturbed. The slight smile on the Pharaoh's face, the 11 solid kilos of gold, the simplicity and yet perfection of the lines is nothing short of astonishing. Equally impressive were the 2 coffins on display, the outermost one which was of gold and weighed 110 kilos!

We were glad we decided against hiring an Egyptologist for this day. It was quite a sight to see them rush around with tourists trying to cover the treasures in a short hour or two. A good guide book is a must inside this museum, as little is labelled in an explanatory way. We were happy to just walk through all the rooms at our own pace, interpreting what we saw ourselves, and using the guidebook to aid us in more fully understanding the artifacts. (side note: I suppose I lucked out by having a travel partner with the most impressive knowledge of ancient Egyptian history...Mr. R was throughout the trip my own private Egyptologist) The Egpytian Museum is not the most impressive institution in terms of organization and maintanence- many of the items were poorly lit, and devoid of even the most basic description. We at one point watched in shock as two young men dangled two recently restored items that easily were thousands years old up the stairs to the second floor. We hear that the government is in the process of building a more modern museum, though most Egyptians laugh at this as it's been in the planning stages since atleast the last two decades.

After our day at the museum, we left once again silent and completely in awe of this civilisation that was far more advanced than anything else at the time, and really proved that civilisation has never been linear. Having seen the treasures to emerge from so many tombs as well as the mummies on display, we were all the more excited about our trip later to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.

After a quick dinner, we were picked up by our agent and driven to the Giza Station to board our over night sleeper train to Aswan, in Southern Egypt. The train was suprisingly comfortable, clean, and far more "posh" than the European sleeper trains. In our individual compartment were two beds, as well as a sink- we were also served a dinner and breakfast that was no where as bad as the reviews suggest. The price of the train is very expensive considering local prices (130$ roundtrip) but it was a comfortable way to see some of the countryside and maybe arrive refreshed at your destination (insert here the music for "to be continued" :)

ps: cameras are strictly not allowed inside the museum - the pictures inside were not taken by me