Cairo - Misc. Photos and Street Scenes
Egypt is home to a great civilization that stretches over 5000 years.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo has some of the best Egyptian artifacts in the world, followed by the British Museum and the Louve in Paris. One treat of our tour was to visit the museum 2 hours before it opened. It allowed our small tour group a more relaxed and educational visit than with the normal crush of tourists. Our tour traced the span of time from the old kingdom through the middle and new kingdoms. With time to really examine the funerary artifacts, jewels and funeral masks of King Tut and other Pharaohs as well as see the mummy rooms in peace and quiet. We discovered that King Tut was quite an archer from the number of bows found in his tomb. At 9 am the museum opened and within minutes the first floor was full of tour groups with their guides trying to find a corner to talk. We appreciated even more the two hours we spent in peace. It is hard to believe that until 1996 security at the museum was a single watchman and a dog. A foiled robbery made the curators decide to upgrade security to a state of the art system to protect these priceless artifacts.
One thing I have not mention about Cairo is litter. Everywhere you look there is trash; on the streets, clogging the Nile canals, in empty lots, it is everywhere. When we visited other parts of Egypt there was much less litter and trash, but in Cairo it is pervasive. I think that if they made water bottles and plastic bags refundable they could clean up 90% of the trash overnight.
Read MoreThe Egyptian Museum in Cairo has some of the best Egyptian artifacts in the world, followed by the British Museum and the Louve in Paris. One treat of our tour was to visit the museum 2 hours before it opened. It allowed our small tour group a more relaxed and educational visit than with the normal crush of tourists. Our tour traced the span of time from the old kingdom through the middle and new kingdoms. With time to really examine the funerary artifacts, jewels and funeral masks of King Tut and other Pharaohs as well as see the mummy rooms in peace and quiet. We discovered that King Tut was quite an archer from the number of bows found in his tomb. At 9 am the museum opened and within minutes the first floor was full of tour groups with their guides trying to find a corner to talk. We appreciated even more the two hours we spent in peace. It is hard to believe that until 1996 security at the museum was a single watchman and a dog. A foiled robbery made the curators decide to upgrade security to a state of the art system to protect these priceless artifacts.
One thing I have not mention about Cairo is litter. Everywhere you look there is trash; on the streets, clogging the Nile canals, in empty lots, it is everywhere. When we visited other parts of Egypt there was much less litter and trash, but in Cairo it is pervasive. I think that if they made water bottles and plastic bags refundable they could clean up 90% of the trash overnight.
