The Egyptian museum

Photography aren't allowed in the museum, so there are no interior shots. Since returning I've purchased a few more books on Egypt, some on the museum, to remind me of what I saw that day. There were a lot of people sketching and drawing the exhibits inside the museum. This is definitely one place I will return to, to see again. We paid a guide to take us around, we paid for the briefest tour. Considering the amount of antiquities Egypt has, this museum is too small. Everyone knows they have numerous crates of stuff still stored away because of lack of room. The talk is of building a bigger place, I hope soon, so I'll still be alive to see it. But whatever they have on display is mind boggling, it goes back thousands of years and the condition they are in is remarkable. We saw the stuff that came out of King Tut's tomb, they were among the most impressive. It really makes me excited to go back and this time to Luxor to see it all. It is truly an impressive museum, the incredible sarcophagi, the funeral masks, priceless jewels and jewellery. Some of the wooden coffins are still intact after 2500 years, made from cedars of Lebanon, that is written of in the Old Testament- the same wood they used for building the temple in Jerusalem. The connection between the Israelites and Egypt is so close and well documented in the bible. Even the Holy family spent time in Egypt. So a lot of Holy land tours incorporate a trip to Egypt. It is so incredibly remarkable. Words can only do so much to express all this history.

The Nile Hotel is in the fore ground. If you stayed here, you'll just be a stone throw away from the Egyptian museum and the Nile is right next to the hotel.

Time for a refreshment break.It was a really nice day, warm and not too hot.

The desert on my shoes. They are still in my closet like this. I wore them 2 days ago and to my horror realised I haven't cleaned them yet. I still haven't cleaned them yet.

This guy wanted to polish my shoes for me. We were seated across from each other. I said, no.

I only found out after I returned that the displays of antiquities outside like this one are the real deal. I thought they were fakes. I thought it was like in Florence, Italy where the exterior displays are all fakes and the real ones are housed in museums. No, these are all the real things, excavated from tombs all over Egypt. Wow!

These are not fakes...

This is so beautiful, more so now that I know it is real. They are still digging up more stuff and all are still in crates. When can we see them all is the question but whatever is on display is remarkable. There was a section where they kept the mummies, you have to pay extra to see that. We didn't but we did catch a glimpse of "Ramses' his bony hand was sticking out of his sarcophagus, our guide said, 'that's Ramses, his hand is broken, that is why it is sticking up in the air'.

One can buy a book on all the exhibits in the museum. In fact it is recommended that you bring the book and view the exhibits with the guide of a book.