The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities

I still find it hard to believe that I am actually in Egypt. I vividly remember learning about the Egyptian dynasties during grade school and dreaming about how amazing it would be to one day see the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Now that dream is a reality but it still doesn't seem real! Today was a very interesting day. I saw so much and learned even more. 

First, we went to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. The museum was my first real look at the ancient Egyptian culture. It holds artifacts from the 30 dynasties of Egypt. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum but it was one of the coolest places I have ever seen.

Perhaps most famously, the museum is home to King Tutankhamon’s treasure. It was unbelievable to see the treasure this young king had. The golden mask was just as cool as I thought it would be. The coffin was equally as impressive. There was so much gold! It is hard to believe that these artifacts were truly thousands of years old. Many of them still bear astonishingly bright paints. I was shocked to learn that King Tut's tomb is relatively small compared to those of other rulers. His life was cut short when he died at the age of 20 from malaria. The cause of his death was just discovered in 2010. Previously, it was believed that he died from falling off of his chariot and hitting his head (not sure how that "rumor" got started). If this treasure and tomb are considered “small”, I am extremely excited to see what the large tombs are like.

In the museum, there is an exhibit containing many mummies. Queen Hatshpust’s mummy was there, a queen that was originally mistaken by Egyptologists as a nurse due to her bad dental work and obesity. Another notable king in the exhibit is King Ramses II. He is well known because he ruled for the longest period of time out of all the kings. He ruled for 67 years. There were many more mummies but I do not remember all of their names. My brain is on information overload right now.

These two exhibits are simply the two that I found to be most intriguing. However, the museum was absolutely huge and contained more artifacts that I ever thought one building could hold. Currently, there are plans in the works to create an even larger museum to hold these incredible pieces of Egyptian history. 

Lunch today was delicious. We had a traditional Egyptian meal called Koshary. It is made of rice, macaroni, tomato sauce, lentils, and many other things. I was slightly nervous about trying it but it was delicious As Hannah and Jen put it, it tastes like “Chipotle on crack”.  I actually ate almost the entire thing. My first big meal of the trip, to be honest.

After lunch, we went to a sweet shop and had traditional Egyptian deserts. Oddly, they were not as sweet as I expected them to be. I was surprised because I would describe a lot of the basic lunch and dinner as having a fairly sweet taste. They were still good, but not my favorite. At this time, we also sent groups into a tiny shop to look for souvenirs. The shop is one of our professors favorites. I purchased a jewelry box (at least it is a box that I plan on using for my jewelry). I also got a gift for my brother (but I can’t put what that is on here because he reads my blog!).

This is only the first half of the day when we focused on Egyptian history, the rest of the day centered on the revolution (the topic that I am honestly the most intrigued by). We came back to the hotel and had a discussion, “The Role of the Ordinary Egyptian in the Revolution”. Unfortunately, I am getting very tired (it is past midnight here!) and I have to wake up very early tomorrow to see the step pyramids. Therefore, I will save my comments regarding this discussion for tomorrow because believe me, I have a lot to say. It was a great discussion and really illustrated the power of the revolution and the involvement of “ordinary” people in its organization and success. Very powerful stuff. Tomorrow I will discuss some of what I have learned regarding why the revolution occurred, how it did, what is going on politically now with the upcoming elections, and what we can truly expect from the elections that occur next week.