Return to Journal Home Page

Return to Egypt Home Page

Today, our last day, is spent on our own in Cairo.  Our wonderful Egyptologist guide Ahmed gave us a "treasure hunt" in the Cairo Museum.  We have a total of nine items to find in the museum, which he hopes will encourage us to spend the day exploring all the halls and corners of this fabulous if overwhelming treasure trove.  It's a relatively short walk from our hotel, so we head out down the Corniche, dodging traffic, and spend a lovely day in the museum.

The walk is telling in a way, particularly to notice the differences since my last visit.  Most notably, the percentage of women in hijabs is astounding.  In the late 80s, Cairo was the most cosmopolitan of Arab cities, and many women went with their heads bare and in modest but nonetheless Western clothes.  Now only a handful of women go bareheaded or in anything but the most voluminous clothes, covering every inch of skin.  Considering that Egypt is roughly 10% Christian, this is a bit surprising.  During our stay, we hear that some of this change is due to the war in Iraq.  Women are becoming more traditional in protest as it were, and some prominent women are even giving up their jobs if they cannot wear the hijab.  Female tour guides are therefore more rare now, as they are required to wear Western clothes.  A news anchorwoman quit due to the requirement that she go bareheaded on TV, and a famous singer similarly has stopped recording videos.  I always dress very carefully in Islamic countries to avoid being an offensive tourist, but even so I notice that my long skirt and sleeves don't really compare.  It's an interesting and telling change.

On the ground floor of the museum, we do pretty well, finding three of the four items on our list.  The first is the Israelite stela, which is the only artifact that mentions the Hebrew people in all of Egypt.  It's a rather prosaic stela, not terribly well marked, but we track it down off the central hall.  Next is the only known statue of Merynptah, an early Pharoah.  We manage to this miss this one, probably because it's close to the entrance and often has crowds of people in front of it.  After much searching we find #3, the only statue of King Titi, a 6th Dynasty Pharaoh.  Finally, we successfully find Meritamon, a daughter of Ramses II called the "white queen".  Her statue is a lovely example of the best of statuary, delicate and expressive.  I'm very glad we found her.

Upstairs we do less well, perhaps because the exhibits other than the mummy room and the grave goods of Tutankhamon are so badly labeled.  We are seeking a set of wood coffins and another set of stone coffins, but there are entire hallways of coffins, stacked three or four to a display case, with labels largely in Arabic.  We strike out on coffins, after almost an hour of walking hallways and scouring rooms trying to decipher the few English or French labels we can find.  I develop no appreciation for fine coffin artwork, I regret to say.  I do develop an intense need for a Coke.  

Fortunately we do better with the smaller items.  We quickly find the gorgeous faiance of the third pyramid of Zoser, mounted near the mummy room.  This is the earliest and also the best faiance in the museum, beautiful and intricate.  In a small room almost unnoticed, we find the Hamaka tomb objects.  The tomb of Hamaka, a vizir of the 2nd Dynasty, was found largely intact.  The grave goods are smaller, less ornate, and certainly less covered in gold than those of the Pharoahs.  However, the work is beautiful.  It gives you an idea of how others lived their lives, though certainly as a vizir Hamaka was no doubt very rich compared to most.  

Finally, we track down the maquettes of the tomb of another vizir, Meket-ra.  These are remarkable, and are a must-see in the museum.  He created a set of figures for each part of his holdings -- a dairy, a ranch, a farm.  Tiny figures perform each task, from brewing to baking to harvesting.  It's a wonderful picture of daily life unequaled by tomb paintings.  

In our trek, we do enter every room, we see every pile of scarabs and every case of papyrus.  We even found an entire hallway filled with boxes labeled for shipment around the world (shades of Indiana Jones again).  Most of the way, particularly on the upper floor, we were alone.  These rooms aren't on the usual tour, so you find yourself in a maze without guards, labels, or maps.  It's really fascinating, and well worth a day, the sore feet, and the time.

After dinner, another round of packing, finding the few clean items and making sure the MP3 player is fully charged.  We take a quick map, then it's yet another 1am departure (our 3rd of the trip) to head to the airport for our 4:30am flight.  At least the layover is efficient, and it's rapidly back to Boston and humidity.

Previous Installment