The Egyptian Museum

After a great 10 hours sleep, we set off to the Egyptian Museum on Thursday morning, Christmas Day. That's not a mistake - Coptic Christians celebrate Christmas on 7 Jan. We spent the morning with our Egyptian guide, Rami, leading us around some of the most exciting items in the museum. Rami is 6 foot 4, with a purple jersey and curly hair. His English is fluent, so a great asset. He will travel with us all over Egypt.

The museum is arranged in chronological order: Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and then New Kingdom. The highlight was of course the tomb of Tutankhamen, You get to the top of the stairs and there is the largest, outside gold shrine, followed by the next two smaller ones. Then in a side room are the two gold coffins, and the most special treasures. The gold and blue head/mask is superb, as is the throne. Did you ever notice that where you would lean back against the throne, T is wearing a left sandal and his wife has the right one, symbolising their belonging together. On the back of the throne (behind it) are four blue cobras.

You just can't imagine how much stuff was in the tomb, even if you've read about it. Two black statues with gold skirts, four high beds about shoulder height, four low beds, one folding up in case he wanted to take it hunting in the after death world. Sandals, socks, gloves, bows and arrows, walking sticks with carved handles, pieces of cloth, Alabaster canopic jars, inlaid chests, chairs, stools, boxes, necklaces, 360 small servant figurines to help him through each year, with larger ones to be the supervisors.

I spent half the afternoon looking at it all and then went back into the general section where much of the 'stuff' is still in ancient locked cupboards, including lots of mummies in their painted sarcophaguses (or is that sarcophagi?). Also model boats with clay crews, models of houses, huge statues, or parts thereof. There's a separate exhibition within the museum, of Royal Mummies. I went in, but felt it was a desecration for them to have become objects to stare at. The heads, hands and feet were revealed but the bodies were still wrapped in cloth. There's something uncomfortable at staring down at the remains of Rameses II.

Hoping to find the time to add a few photos next time I blog, but right now must sign off as we're going to the 'Sound and Light' show at the pyramids.