Huge Day in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
June 04, 2013
Today was another jam packed day
We were up at 7:30 so we could spend more time at the buffet breakfast. At 9:00 we were off across the river toward the Egyptian museum. When we arrived there was a small demonstration going on in the courtyard to the museum. It was nice that they were singing Egyptian songs for us for our visit!
We were not able to take photos inside the museum, so you will have to come and see it for yourself! It is an old building and the display cases are all antiques in their own right. The whole experience was very Indiana Jones as we were going through the galleries.
The museum has over 120,000 artifacts. If you were to spend 30 seconds looking at each one, you would have to be at the museum for 4 months. Wow! The main floor starts with the oldest Egyptian artifacts and the more recent ones are on the upper level, so we started on the main floor. We will try to share a few things from each period that we saw...
PreHistory:
There was a display with prehistory pottery with crocodile, ostrich and gold. From early on Egyptians loved and used gold! We were able to see the Narmer Palette, that dates back to 2690 BC. It is a significant archeological find because it has some of the earliest hieroglyphics. This statue commemorated the unification of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. One of the things that was depicted was 6 papyrus which means that the king of the North killed 6,000 in the battle. If you want to learn more: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/narmer.htm
Old Kingdom:
In the period between 2,465 to 2,323 BC the statues of the Pharaoh's did not have facial emotion. Contrast this with the middle kingdom period statues. The Kings look stressed, they have wrinkles and bags under eyes. This could be due to the fact that they were dealing with wars and people no longer considered themselves to be gods.
We saw the wooden statue of Sheikh al Balad. I believe that it was the first realistic representation of someone (he had no wig and a big belly).
The statues of Rahotep and Nofret were very modern looking, he had a moustache. Rahotep was a high priest and Khufu's brother. During the period of Khufu and his son Khafre they introduced reserve heads (bodiless headed statues); people did not like this, so the style did not catch on.
One discovery after 1871 uncovered 55 hidden mummies and coffins. The collection had been found by a goat farmer. It was revealed when the collection was studied that the 21st dynasty king moved the mummies in the valley of the Kings nearby. Some people believe that the old century cache may be under the Sphinx.
Middle Kingdom:
During the period King Mentuhotep II did not build stone pyramids. This period became very important for literature.
New Kingdom:
During this time the Pharaohs lost the delta and were losing more ground to southern Nubians. The Hyksos invaders introduced the wheel and using horse and chariot. Their tombs were hidden in the valley of the Kings and have been uncovered. So they know that there were 32 pharaohs during this 600 year period.
The statue of King Akhenaten and his family first time a pharaoh was shown naturally. This realistic portrayal also shows the genetic abnormality of large lips and heads. King Akhenaten founded the oldest documented monotheistic religion and move the capital from Luxor with 50,000 followers of the new religion. Nefertiti was his wife. It is believed that she was not Egyptian because her name means the beautiful stranger. The king was so religious that he did not want to go to war, so a large portion of the Empire was lost during this time. After his death, his cartouche has been removed which means someone wanted revenge, not theft.
The Tutankhamen exhibit was by far the most stunning, he became king at age 9 after the death of King Akhenaten and he married his half sister/cousin, Ankhesenamum at age 10. He changed his name, ended his the monotheistic religion founded by his father and returned to Luxor. Upon his death at age 19 the military took over, ending the 18 dynasty.
The large cache of Tutankhamen was discovered in 1922. Omar told us many stories of the curse. The tomb was unfinished and is small with only 4 chambers. The treasure contains wooden and golden chapels, chariots, weapons, jewelry, a wedding box that had our papyrus painting on it, alabaster jars with essences, clothing, mummification beds, 365 statues of servants - one a day, more than 100 walking sticks, ostrich feather fan, a game, his chair, boats, wine jars, life size statues in black meaning the return of life, and so much more.
On the upper floor of the museum there were many mummies that were found in the late 1800's, some are unknown cartouche missing. We did not pay extra today to see the mummies. but we expect to come back next week
Votive mummies animals that represent the gods were kept in catacombs near the tombs. Like a votive candle in Church, it is a prayer that continues as long as it is intact.
Some of the things we have learned over the past couple of days:
Cartouche was used for kings to write their names and it used to be a symbol of the cosmos. You can read hieroglyphics from right to left, left to right or top to bottom, but not bottom to top. A death mask was used to help the soul find the body.
Owl - it is the letter M in heiroglyphics
Set - is the evil god, but is the protector in the oasis.
Jekyll - anoobis or god of mummification.
Falcon - Horace (when depicted with double crown) or Ra (when depicted with a disc); Osiris and Isis gave birth to Horace - resurrection story. Eye of Horace is a symbol of healing.
Bull - Hathor - goddess of love, music and dance, can be represented as a bull
Sacarab - sun rising
Hippo - Tauret rep motherhood and love
Avatar - changes his/her function or shape, regionally
Zig zag - water, three zig zags is a flood
Omar said that it seemed like the museum was busier today than it had been in a long time. but still not that busy, we would often have entire corridors to ourselves and there was no crowding in the Tutankhamen rooms
As we drove past Tahrir Square we noticed some beautiful old buildings with French architecture. Omar told us that this used to be a wealthy area until the monarchy was replaced by the president. The new regime did not allow owners to increase rent and renters were able to pass along the low rent costs to 2 generations. This caused the disrepair of all buildings and the lack of preservation to storefront facades. What a shame!
We had a relaxing lunch at Felfela restaurant. The meal consisted of baba ganoush, hummus, egg with tomatoes and beef, tastziki and falafel, chicken and beef and for dessert, Mohalabiyya - rice and milk pudding. The restaurant used to be very popular, but now is very quiet with lots of empty tables The Citadel.
We stopped at the essence shop. The shop owner was very gracious and provided us with many samples of oils. The hand blown glass bottles were very beautiful. We settled on a medium size bottle of Sandalwood that should take care of my aches and pains for many years to come. He was kind enough to include a small handblown glass bottle with our purchase.
We then went to the citadel. Omar explained that in 1176 construction was started on the citadel by Saladin to protect Cairo during the Crusades and finally finished by Mohammed Ali, an Albanian soldier. Mohammed Ali became the ruler of Egypt because he was ambitious and popular. He also became known as the father of modern Egypt. He must have taken this role very seriously because he fathered 95 children. Prior to his death in 1848, he built a mosque and tomb inside the citadel. His family ruled in Egypt from 1805 to 1952, ending with King Farouk who left Egypt on July 26th in exile Theresa and Makmood.
The style of the mosque is Turkish or Ottoman with thin high minarets and many sizes of domes.
1811 Mohammed Ali massacred the Mamelukes who were stirring up trouble. He did it by inviting the high ranking officials to a banquet, then locking the gates and his soldiers opened fire on them with muskets. This guy did not mess around!
Mohammed Ali Mosque started in 1426 - 1830 on the site of the destroyed Mameluke palace. In the Ottoman style. It is open air with a kiosk in the middle with water to wash before praying. It was built in memory of his second son Tusun Pasha. The tomb of Ali is located here.
El Nasir the 14th century hypostyle Mosque has an open courtyard which makes it very peaceful, pillars from the Romans. The doors were closed off in the ancient time when there was an attempted murder of the builder.
Omar gave us some high-level points of the Islamic Religion:
In 610 Mohammed was 40 years old and climbed the hill in Mecca and became the messenger of God Al Nasir Mosque. After 22 years he managed to form the first central government and religious unification. Islam came to Egypt 10 years after Mohammed's death. The fourth Khalif wrote the Koran for the first time, 14 years after Mohammed's death. There are 6,000 verses that God gave to Mohammed. For the first four Khalifs the capital was located in Meccas. Mohammed did not allow images of humans to avoid worshipping Mohammed or people instead of God. He forbade priesthood as people should avoid making money from religion. He proclaimed that marriage is civil not religious.
The root of conflicts within Islam is due to three reasons: 1) The Arabic language spoken today is different than the language of the Koran, therefore it can be misinterpreted. 2) If you only read some of the words of a verse instead of the entire verse, it gives a completely different meaning. 3) The difference of literal language vs interpretation (moderates vs conservatives) Lessons in Islam.
The five tenants of Islam are: 1) Believe in one god. 2) Pray five times a day. 3) Fast during Ramadan. 4) 2.5% tithing to the poor. 5) Go to Mecca once in your life if you are able to afford to.
After the citadel, we toured an the area of Old Cairo. It has been inhabited from 969 AD until today. Some people live in the tombs in this area. The buildings were very picturesque and gave us a sense of what living in Cairo must have been like. There were several water wells that were very ornate. They quenched your thirst with drink (water), knowledge (children were taught upstairs) and prayer (mosque at the back of the well). I came up with that on my own, but feel free to use it too!
There were many old palaces and mosques in this area, but were not allowed to go into any of the buildings. Along the way we saw people going about their day to day lives - selling goods, delivering bread by balancing ladders on their heads while riding bikes, cars, trucks and carts noisily manoeuvred around us (was pedestrian only before the revolution) Inside the Mohammed Ali Mosque. We finished our tour in the bizarre area. They were selling clothing, jewellery, fruits, candies, scarves, lanterns,…
We walked by one cafe that has been open 24/7 for over 300 years. They have only been closed during Ramadan. Old Cairo is very beautiful, unique and bustling with life. We thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it.
It took us a long time to get back to the hotel because the traffic was so heavy. We decided to take a quick plunge in the hot tub before having dinner.
We had dinner at Abou el Sid. We were seated at a large round table with 2 other couples. One Egyptian couple and two young girls from the Netherlands. I tried Molokheya, a traditional dish with chicken and rice. Bill ordered Lamb kofta and stuffed pigeon with rice or frick (couscous). We thoroughly enjoyed both dishes!
Later, I was enjoying the symphony of music (car horns) with the patio door open in our room while working on the blog. Bill was at the casino playing black jack. It has been a long, but very good day!
