Rain and the Egyptian Museum

I apologize for the few pictures in this entry, but the only place I visited where it was worth taking a camera, the Egyptian Museum, did not allow photography. Truthfully the past week was relatively uneventful, so there is not too much new to report.

I still enjoy all of my classes most of the time, and I haven't had too much intense work to do yet. In my Modern Middle Eastern History class, my professor's own opinions continue to make the class more interesting, including the previously mentioned example of her always calling Sunni Islam the "true path" of Islam. We touched on Israel last week, and my professor reminded us that the British Mandate of Palestine (now modern-day Israel) was 93% Arab and only 7% Jewish before WWII. I'd say that this bias is pretty consistent among Egyptians, as murals commemorating Egypt's initial victory against Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur/October War can be found in Cairo and a very noticeable group called "AUC Stduents for Gaza" exists on our campus. In my other Middle Eastern History class, I've been learning a lot about early Islamic Empires/Caliphates, which I'm actually finding very interesting. Feel free to ask me how Sunni and Shi'a Islam split when I return (I have a feeling no one will take me up on this offer).

On Thursday night my friends and I ate at a hotel's restaurant and got a table on its balcony, which gave us a very nice view of the area. While eating at restaurants such as these are nice, they certainly aren't something I can do too often. An expensive meal in Cairo only comes to about $10 US, but I do have to buy all of my meals so even cheap dishes like Koushari (the pasta/rice/macaroni carb explosion that costs between $.55 and $.90 US) and Shawarma (like a very meaty footlong sub that costs around $1.80) add up. While I'm on the subject of food, the highlight of my Friday was my Feteer for dinner (we really didn't do much Friday). Feteer, sometimes called Egyptian pancakes, are somewhat similar to crepes, and my favorite variety is Chocolate and Banana Sweet Feteer (for the equivalent of $4 US I am made extremely happy for about half an hour).

Aside from delicious food, the only other highlight of my Friday was the odd weather: rain. While it frequently looks overcast in Cairo, potentially due to the smog, it has only briefly rained once during my stay here. Friday however, it poured heavily out of nowhere and then began hailing. The spontaneity of the downpour and the warm weather made me think of Florida, but this deluge only lasted at most 15 minutes and placed everyone on high alert. Due to the desert climate, Cairo receives about one inch of precipitation a year, meaning I was even more surprised when it briefly rained Saturday night.

On Saturday morning, some friends and I visited the Egyptian Museum, which is located relatively close downtown. The Egyptian Museum contains most of what Egypt is famous for- mummies, the Tutankhamen collection, statues, sarcophagi, and other Ancient Egyptian artifacts- meaning it is perpetually packed with tourists. From the moment we entered the museum area and passed though 3 metal detectors (tourism is a huge part of Egypt's economy after all), we were surrounded by French, British, and German tourists.


Not my picture


The Museum itself is massive, and it is nearly impossible to see everything in it in a single day. I found this to be especially true to be true since I only saw a third of it after spending about 4 hours inside. While I will probably return so I can see the Old Kingdom artifacts and the Greco-Roman influenced artifacts, I did get to see most of the Middle Kingdom artifacts and the Tutankhamen Collection. Unfortunately, the reputation that a significant portion of the Museum's collection is poorly lit and not labeled is true. Not only did me make this guess as to the certain functions of some of the artifacts, it also made me wonder what the person being mummified would think if their carefully crafted sarcophagus was just placed in a glass case on a shelf with no label thousands of years in the future ("I can't believe I died, had my organs removed with hooks and placed in jars, and was mummified just for this!)". Some of the artifacts were incredibly interesting though, such as ridiculously detailed dioramas depicting daily life and model boats that were placed in tombs to accompany the deceased in the afterlife. There were also chariots, jewelry, and some beautifully decorated sarcophagi and canopic jars (jars that held organs post-mummification). The most famous artifacts however, and those that can be found on the cover of several social studies textbooks throughout the US, are those belonging to King Tutankhamen. Although he had a very short reign of 3 years and died when he was 19 (he's called "The Boy King" in the Museum a few times), his collection of mostly gold-plated artifacts remain in pristine condition, most notably the mask placed over his mummy.



Also not my picture

I didn't get to see any actual mummies in the museum, as this required a special ticket that cost 50LE, so I think I'll rely on the MET in New York City to see those in the future. While not too much happened travel-wise this weekend, I do plan on traveling this coming weekend, and I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.