02/02/19 Today we visit the Cairo museum opened since 1901, designed by the French and decorated by the Italians. It holds 70 000 pieces on display.
Mo gave us some explanation about a few statues and items on the first level like the King Mycrenos statue, King Kephren statue (the only proof that he owned the Sphynx), the seated scribe statue to represent the 10% of people who could read and write. We saw the oldest bedroom with a bed with a head rest in a shape of key of life, which ensures that you are brought back to life in the morning. We stopped by the only statuette found of King Kheops, measuring only 7.5cm high. Quite unusual for an era where Kings had massive statues in the temples.
I learned a bit more aboug Akhenaton who believed in a new God, Aton who is behind the sun and the sky, creating different art compared to the previous Kings. This one assumes that the Kings are only humans, not half gods anymore, therefore less perfect and less beautiful.
Then we had about 45 min to explore the museum but it was crowded and there were so many things to see. A lot of sarcophagus and mummies (extra ticket), and a room dedicated to Tutankhamun, his mask and items found in his tomb. A few mummies of animals are also visible, like cats, dogs, sheep, birds, as pets were also mummified next to their owners.
After Cairo Museum we visited The Hanging Church, which has its name from the structure built under the church to hold it on horizontal pillars.
We had a koshery lunch, traditional Egyptian buffet meal and drove to the Saladin Citadel, built in 1830 to be a security building, 70m high on 42 acres of land.
We learned about Islam and the process of cleaning before praying. Muslims pray 5 times a day, between sunrise and sunset, for the 5 pillars of Islam.
The tour officially ended in Cairo for me, but a group of 4 people living in Finland (3 Vietnamese girls and a Polish guy) invited me to join them on an extra excursion day tomorrow in Alexandria, which I accepted.
