The Egyptian Museum, Hanging Church, Mosque of Muhammad Ali, Khan El Khalili Bazar & Saying Goodbye,
Our last day on tour & last full day in Egypt would surely be a big one!
We were all fresh, stuffed full from breakfast & on the bus by 8am, some of the tour group also had their bags & were catching flights out during the day.
First stop of the day was to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. We are both full of anticipation to finally see a mummy! Unfortunately it was a Saturday & we encountered our first crowding & queuing experience in Egypt. Once we were all issued with tickets & were inside the museum gates, we were given a brief history by Sam & then each handed walkie talkie devices with an ear piece so we could listen to Sam. Unfortunately once we got inside the museum, hearing Sam through the walkie talkie piece was very difficult, due to the crowds of people, the high ceilings of the museum which were creating echo's & the static from the walkie talkies.
The museum was absolutely huge! We were confined to only a small section of ancient history that we would already be familiar with from the temples & given a few hours to explore.
The first few rooms we went into contained various sized statues that were for different purposes & representations which had been escavated from tombs & temples. It was amazing to see & learn about the progression of the sculpting & the painting of the ancient artists. Some of the lifelike statues found in tombs, designed to guard the entranceways had stones & mirrors in their eyes to create a realistic glint that was very pronounced from light. I imagined this would have scared a lot of grave robbers who were already anxious of traps & their souls predestined doom in the afterlife.
An exhibit that required extra payment and a special ticket was to see Tutenkhamun's gold jewellery, mask & sarcophagus. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in this exhibit & it was extremely crowded. The amount of wealth this young pharaoh had at the age of his death (19) was unfathomable. I did think it was rather disappointing that they didn't have his mummy in the same exhibit, instead choosing to leave that in his tomb at the valley of the kings.
After this we brought another extra ticket which gave us access to the royal mummy room. It was here we finally got to see our first mummy & many more. For reasons of wealth & worship, the royal mummies had a much longer embalming period of 70 days, so their mummies are in a much better state of preservation. Again we were not allowed to take any pictures in this room. It was a very strange feeling to be looking into the face of a ruler who lived centuries ago in such an established civilisation. Often we knew so much about the mummies we were looking at & had been to their temples & hard about the great things they had done for Egypt. We both distinctly remember that the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut was rather large & that medical imaging & tests showed she had diabetes, arthritis, periodontal disease & bone cancer, which was likely the cause of her death.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramessex was one of the oldest rulers to die & be mummified, his scans showing he had pelvic cancer, possibly from all the heir's he created while alive.
We also went into another 2 mummy rooms that our extra ticket granted us entry to. One held the mummies of lesser important people such as priests. The last room of mummies we went into had the mummified remains of pets which was highly interesting. We saw the mummified remains of many cats, dogs, cows, crocodiles, birds, baboons & even a fish. Most animal's were in the image of a god & therefore were worshipped in their life.
After this we had barely any time to explore what remained of the museum & as usual we were running late back to the bus. On our way out we did briefly stop in a few rooms to look at the many displays of surgeons tools, beauty utensils, agricultural tools, children's toys, jewellery, furniture, books & scrolls. We also saw a lot of sarcophagus's and smaller mummies of poor preservation & of no identification.
We both left feeling like we could of easily spent the whole day in the museum!
After the museum we were straight off to the Hanging Church also known as Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church. Our guide told us this is one of the first holy sights, its history beginning in the 3rd century AD & about Egypt's history with Christianity & how it can boast for having the first Christian Monk. Throughout exploring the temples, we have definitely seen the evidence of the coptic Christian monks trying to eliminate the older religion of the ancient Egyptians.
it is nicknamed the hanging church, after being built on top of the babalon fortress & seeming to suspend above the original foundations.
We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the church and after walking inside the chapel area we sat not he pews while Sam gave us an education & explained about the 110 holy icons that this church holds.
After the church it was time for lunch before our next stop, the mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha.
The mosque is also know as the Alabaster Mosque & is situated int he citadel of Cairo.
It was our first mosque that we would be going into, despite spending so much time in muslim countries. The mosque was built between 1830 and 1848 & commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha, who was essentially the governor of Egypt at the time.
While we were sitting inside the mosque & getting an education on the importance of the mosque for prayer & the protocols for men & women, a news team for Channel 2 arrived and started to film us. They would later go on to interview 2 of the people from our tour about our experiences in Egypt.
The snippet of film, received air time on the following Monday around 10am. Tom & I were both sitting right at the back of the crowd & can't really be seen. Just like the church, photography of the mosque was not permitted.
Once everyone had finished shopping, we all hoped back onto the bus and made our way back to the resort where we would all order dinner & say goodbye to our driver Rami, tour guide Sam & all of our new friends. It was quite a sad event, made bearable by the large amount of cold beer, shisha & food we ate by the pool. We stayed up for many hours drinking, talking & saying goodbye until we realised it was 2.30am.
Our last day on tour & last full day in Egypt would surely be a big one!
We were all fresh, stuffed full from breakfast & on the bus by 8am, some of the tour group also had their bags & were catching flights out during the day.
First stop of the day was to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. We are both full of anticipation to finally see a mummy! Unfortunately it was a Saturday & we encountered our first crowding & queuing experience in Egypt. Once we were all issued with tickets & were inside the museum gates, we were given a brief history by Sam & then each handed walkie talkie devices with an ear piece so we could listen to Sam. Unfortunately once we got inside the museum, hearing Sam through the walkie talkie piece was very difficult, due to the crowds of people, the high ceilings of the museum which were creating echo's & the static from the walkie talkies.
The museum was absolutely huge! We were confined to only a small section of ancient history that we would already be familiar with from the temples & given a few hours to explore.
The first few rooms we went into contained various sized statues that were for different purposes & representations which had been escavated from tombs & temples. It was amazing to see & learn about the progression of the sculpting & the painting of the ancient artists. Some of the lifelike statues found in tombs, designed to guard the entranceways had stones & mirrors in their eyes to create a realistic glint that was very pronounced from light. I imagined this would have scared a lot of grave robbers who were already anxious of traps & their souls predestined doom in the afterlife.
An exhibit that required extra payment and a special ticket was to see Tutenkhamun's gold jewellery, mask & sarcophagus. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in this exhibit & it was extremely crowded. The amount of wealth this young pharaoh had at the age of his death (19) was unfathomable. I did think it was rather disappointing that they didn't have his mummy in the same exhibit, instead choosing to leave that in his tomb at the valley of the kings.
After this we brought another extra ticket which gave us access to the royal mummy room. It was here we finally got to see our first mummy & many more. For reasons of wealth & worship, the royal mummies had a much longer embalming period of 70 days, so their mummies are in a much better state of preservation. Again we were not allowed to take any pictures in this room. It was a very strange feeling to be looking into the face of a ruler who lived centuries ago in such an established civilisation. Often we knew so much about the mummies we were looking at & had been to their temples & hard about the great things they had done for Egypt. We both distinctly remember that the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut was rather large & that medical imaging & tests showed she had diabetes, arthritis, periodontal disease & bone cancer, which was likely the cause of her death.
Ramesses II, also known as Ramessex was one of the oldest rulers to die & be mummified, his scans showing he had pelvic cancer, possibly from all the heir's he created while alive.
We also went into another 2 mummy rooms that our extra ticket granted us entry to. One held the mummies of lesser important people such as priests. The last room of mummies we went into had the mummified remains of pets which was highly interesting. We saw the mummified remains of many cats, dogs, cows, crocodiles, birds, baboons & even a fish. Most animal's were in the image of a god & therefore were worshipped in their life.
After this we had barely any time to explore what remained of the museum & as usual we were running late back to the bus. On our way out we did briefly stop in a few rooms to look at the many displays of surgeons tools, beauty utensils, agricultural tools, children's toys, jewellery, furniture, books & scrolls. We also saw a lot of sarcophagus's and smaller mummies of poor preservation & of no identification.
We both left feeling like we could of easily spent the whole day in the museum!
After the museum we were straight off to the Hanging Church also known as Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church. Our guide told us this is one of the first holy sights, its history beginning in the 3rd century AD & about Egypt's history with Christianity & how it can boast for having the first Christian Monk. Throughout exploring the temples, we have definitely seen the evidence of the coptic Christian monks trying to eliminate the older religion of the ancient Egyptians.
it is nicknamed the hanging church, after being built on top of the babalon fortress & seeming to suspend above the original foundations.
We weren't allowed to take any photos inside the church and after walking inside the chapel area we sat not he pews while Sam gave us an education & explained about the 110 holy icons that this church holds.
The mosque is also know as the Alabaster Mosque & is situated int he citadel of Cairo.
It was our first mosque that we would be going into, despite spending so much time in muslim countries. The mosque was built between 1830 and 1848 & commissioned by Muhammad Ali Pasha, who was essentially the governor of Egypt at the time.
While we were sitting inside the mosque & getting an education on the importance of the mosque for prayer & the protocols for men & women, a news team for Channel 2 arrived and started to film us. They would later go on to interview 2 of the people from our tour about our experiences in Egypt.
The snippet of film, received air time on the following Monday around 10am. Tom & I were both sitting right at the back of the crowd & can't really be seen. Just like the church, photography of the mosque was not permitted.
Once we had finished at the mosque it was off to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar, a local shopping market known to attract tourists for the cheap souvenirs & the cafe's sprawled along the front. Tom & I went from a small walk around, not really looking at anything & trying to avoid being hassled by shop owners & children. I managed to find a pair of sunglasses to replace the ones I lost while sailing on the felucca before we retired to a cafe & ordered a turkish coffee that tasted really earthy.
Once everyone had finished shopping, we all hoped back onto the bus and made our way back to the resort where we would all order dinner & say goodbye to our driver Rami, tour guide Sam & all of our new friends. It was quite a sad event, made bearable by the large amount of cold beer, shisha & food we ate by the pool. We stayed up for many hours drinking, talking & saying goodbye until we realised it was 2.30am.
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