Wow! What a great Museum!

Hello!

 

Up this morning about 7 am after a truly restful night’s sleep!  Amazing the difference, a good night’s sleep makes to one’s everything!  (Hope that makes sense, although it may not!). I have long been a believer in the “sleep bank” theory of rest … if you lose sleep, you have to make it up somehow/way.  In my particular case, I find it absolutely impossible to sleep during plane trips.  There have been a few occasions where we have gone first or business class, and then sometimes I can manage a wink or two – although usually not.  I just re-set my watch at the beginning of the plane ride, don’t stress about the fact that I’m NOT sleeping, and then deal with things when we land.  I once watched the movie “Nancy Drew” seven times on our way to Australia; I just don’t sleep!  So, as I say, recovering feels SO good!  So … on to today!

Whoops!  Here are a few photos from Saqqara tombs yesterday.

Loved the fish!

More fish plus boat

Lurking crocodile!

Offerings to their Gods

 

Stars on Unas ceiling

Princess tomb

R's Cesar salad from yesterday

My Caprese salad

R's beef tenderloin

My beef shortribs with mashed potatoes

Up to breakfast about 9 am and this time tried an order of scrambled eggs to go along with everything else.  They were really excellent – although R was right in calculating that I wouldn’t be able to find any salsa to go on top of them.  But actually, they didn’t really need anything!  It’s amazing how good the eggs taste here.  Rather like the chicken in France – such a difference from the hormone-fed and whatever-else they do to chickens and eggs in the U.S.  

 

Out the door about 10 am for our target of the day, the brand-new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (NMEC).  It took Uber about 15 minutes to get us there, and the only word to describe it is:  WOW!  There is an entire campus built around the museum, including a lake and what are taking shape to be stunningly beautiful gardens!  For anyone coming to Egypt, NMEC is must-see.

NMEC from outside; love pyramid shapes

Entryway of NMEC

Some great audiovisual effects

 

We had just entered into the building when we were approached by a young lady, who asked us if we were interested in seeing a “movie” about Queen Hatshepsut!  As she is one of my favorite Pharaoh’s, we decided we were.  We were then directed down two flights of stairs and to a ticket office.  We purchased the tickets 500 EP (Egyptian Pounds) ($16.90 US for two tickets).  We were then personally escorted back upstairs and into a theatre for their 11:00 am English performance.  Well, much to our surprise – we thought we were going to see a movie, we were seeing a live stage presentation!  It was fantastic!  All done in English, with six actors (two women and four men).  They basically told the story of Hatshepsut and how she became queen, co-regent and finally Pharaoh.  It was really well done, and we enjoyed it tremendously!!  Added to the fact that we were the ONLY two people in a theatre that held about 200 people, it was amazing!  Talk about getting the attention of the actors!  Fabulous!  Truly a memory of a lifetime!

 

After that, we headed into the Museum itself.  And again, all I say is AMAZING!  The main exhibit of the museum are the mummies that were moved here in 2020 from the Egyptian Museum.  Apparently it was done one evening – there was a huge parade of beautifully decorated trucks/SUV-type vehicles, and they made quite a parade across town!  (I just goggled “mummies moving from Egyptian Museum to new National Museum of Egyptian Civilization” and you can watch the entire thing!  Highly recommend!  Just incredible!). 

 

Large exhibition space

Actual ancient rope!

Stele with Horus

Bakers

Protective goddesses from King Amenhotep II's tomb

This was my particular favorite!

Chair from Pharaoh Hatseptsut

King Thutmose III, Hatseptsut's step-son

Close up on Thutmose III

An actual ancient Egyptian tent!!

To say that this new museum is World Class and in a class all by itself are understatements.  It’s stunning, and definitely, as Michelin would say “merit un detour!”  It’s also nice that there are guards and staff everywhere, and they are limiting access the mummies to no more than 50 people at a time.  That way, there was never any pushing or queuing and everybody got to see whatever they wanted for however long they wanted.  The only problem, though, is NO PHOTOS, which is a bummer!  However, as they are their mummies, their rules!

 

Exiting from the mummy exhibition, there is a very large display floor, exhibiting things beginning in prehistoric times, and proceeding through Egyptian history to the present time. 

Our most amazing discovery was, believe it or not, a TENT!  Turns out that Egyptians had tents that were very colorful, and were pieced together using large squares of leather.  The one on display today was in amazing colors, with hieroglyphs across the top, and was designed and used by a Royal Princess.  Apparently the tents were set up for various functions.  They were used as shelters when Egyptian Gods and Goddesses left their home temples for festivals and journeys.  They were also used as temporary shelters set up in gardens for midwives when they were attending a birth.  And, finally, when an Egyptian princess would travel anywhere (but never out of the country, as Egyptian princesses were NOT permitted to marry outside their country, although many “foreign” princesses – Hittite, Mitanni, etc. married the Pharaoh himself.  (The wonders of polygamy!). 

 

I have included some photos of our favorite artifacts, hopefully with some sort of explanation of what it is/they are.

 

Game of Senet along with board and chairs!

Pharaoh Akhenaten

From the Hymn of Akhenaten

Stele of the Goddess Meat

Horus

God of the Moon

Golden crown from Ptolemy era

Lake created for the new museum and park

After about a four-hour visit, we were ready for a break.  We’ve always enjoyed walking through other countries shopping malls, and this was no exception.  We Ubered over to City Stars Mall, the largest and newest shopping center in Egypt – out near the airport, on the northeast part of Cairo – a much more up-tick area.  Talk about confusing!  The mall isn’t built around any grid pattern that we could ascertain, so we just had to wander a bit.  Found movie theatres, children’s playgrounds (note plural!), and lots and lots of stores and services, some familiar (H&M, Marks & Spencer, etc.) and some very strange!  Enjoyed it all!  My eye was particularly drawn to two stores that featured lighting … such incredible crystal chandelier displays!  Hope the photos show some examples, but to see them in person is remarkable!  Not sure if they’d fit into our Tucson home – no mission-style chandeliers that I could tell … but fun to look at, even though I’d never be able to get it on an airplane home without buying it a seat!

Interior of City Stars Mall

I do love crystal ...

But not sure this would "go" in Tucson!

 

Finally, back to the hotel about 4:30 pm and in for the night!  I’m blogging now, and R is napping.  Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wake him up to get to the photos, but – oh well!!  Oh!  One other thing!  Our original itinerary had us going to Middle Egypt for two nights in Minya, to see El-Amarna, the city built by the “heretic” Pharaoh, Akhenaten.  However, we’ve decided after yesterday’s walking-on-the-sand experience at Saqqara, that maybe sitting in the car 12 hours (6 there and 6 returning) from Luxor wasn’t the best idea.  So, we’ve cancelled Amarna and instead will spent three blissful days at the Hilton Luxor Resort, thereby giving us more time to see all the wonders (or return to some) that Luxor has to offer!  

 

So, dinner later, but for now, lots and lots of love and thanks for coming with us!

 

m

xxx