Narrowly escaping the Cairo museum

We thought the Cairo museum was supposed to be one of the great museums of the world. You’re in the land of civilization, Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent, everything here is thousands of years BC. The place was packed, not just with tour groups but with wall to wall artifacts, as if they had too many objects and not enough room. It was completely cluttered. None of it was organized and only a small percentage had any descriptions. Some areas looked like store rooms and there wasn’t enough floor space to walk. There were signs posting no touching or photos on all the walls but the ugly tourists were using the statuary as footrests, coasters, and armrests. They would knock on the statues to make sure it was real granite or wood. Even the guides were laying their hands on the lids of the sarcophagi with his troops following the example. It was disgusting. None of the museum guards or crew seemed to care as people blatantly used the exhibits as furniture. The whole situation was so vexing.

There was so much to see and we did our best to enjoy it. Our favorite was the treasures of Tutankhamen. They had all five of his gold gilded tombs, the 3 golden sarcophagi, and all the funerary objects such as beds, canopic jars (where they put the mummy’s innards), statues, furniture, and jewelry. It was unbelievable the quality and quantity of gold and previous stones he had wrapped up with him. His famous gold burial mask was incredible. The mummy exhibit was neat but once you’ve seen one, the rest all start to look the same. We had seen a few people take pictures inside so we got a little brave with taking some discreet video. Right as the museum was closing for Ramadan Steve got caught using the camera at the papyrus exhibit by one of the guards. We managed to give the guard the slip, quickly swapped bags, separated, then regrouped outside.