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Album: By Country | By Date Egypt | March 2001 < Prev: The Windsor Hotel, Cairo Egypt | Next: The Pyramids at Giza >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date Egypt | March 2001  

March 2001 - Egyptian Museum

Even the museum is ancient (and cool)

Maggie at the entrance to the Egyptian Museum. Our guidebook says that if you spent only one minute at each exhibit, it would take nine months to see them all.  There are some unique touches, repainted mounts where the paint has run onto the artifact and wiped off with a rag, yet it is one of the most interesting places we have been with some of the most beautiful objects. Does Indiana Jones work here?  Even the museum should be in a museum.  It looks like museums did years ago - wood and glass cases, one after another, with typewritten cards in the corner.  There is little background information to put things in context, almost no indirect lighting, and nothing is "hands on" - unless you count the fact that you can put your hands on alot of things that should probably be protected by glass.  These folks are looking at the Palette of Narmer, commemorating Upper Egypt's  (the southern part of the country - it's UPriver) conquest of Lower Egypt.  It is from 3000 BC.  To put this in perspective, if the 5000 years between when this made and today were a year and this was made in January and today were January of the following year, the last Egyptian dynasty ended in mid-July, the Fall of the Roman Empire would have occurred in mid-September, the Norman Invasion of Britain in October, the Renaissance in November, and the American revolution happened about two weeks ago.  In other words, this artifact relates to a events much, much earlier than what we consider relevant cultural history. Triad of Menkaura.  Found in the valley temple associated with the "little" pyramid at Giza - the pyramid of King Menkaura.  The kind wears the crown of Upper Egypt and is flanked by Hathor - god of music, beauty, and love - and a woman who represents one of the districts of Egypt.
This is Khafra, builder of the second pyramid at Giza.  From about 2500 BC. Same as the last photo.  From the back and side, you can see the wings of the falcon Horus, symbolizing that the king was divinely assigned to rule the country and received divine aid.  Sheikh el Balad.  The workmen who dug up this statue named this statue after their village headman, because they thought there was a resemblance.  It's really of Ka-aper, a chief lector priest in charge of reciting prayers for the dead in temples and chapels.  The eyes are inlaid: their rims are copper; whites, opaque quartz; and cornea, transparent crystal.  The pupil was made by drilling a hole in the back of the cornea and filling it with black paste. Literacy was the key to senior positions in the bureaucracy.  Many high officials chose to have themselves represented as scribes.  This fellow is right-handed and ready to start writing - from right to left.
Montuhotep II.  During his reign Luxor (Thebes) became the royal residence and religious center.   The statue was found when Howard Carter, the re-discoverer of King Tut's tomb, rode his horse across the hollow concealing it.  When his horse stumbled, it led to the statue's discovery and the naming of the place where it was found Bab Al-Hossan (the tomb of the horse). Seneb the dwarf and his family.  Seneb was chief of palace dwarfs of the royal wardrobe.  He was also attached to the funeary cults of Khufu and Djedefra and involved in their burial ceremonies.  Seneb was granted a tomb in the special section of the Giza necropolis assigned to dwarfs.   His wife, Senet-it-es was 'one known to the king' and a priestess of the goddesses Hathor and Neith  . Nofret was the wife of one of Khufu's (the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza) brothers.  Her wig doesn't entirely hide her natural hair.
King Pepi I.  A metal statue.  Metal working has been known in Egypt since before 3000 BC Funerary Mask of Tutankhamun.  From his tomb in Valley of Kings, near present-day Luxor.  King Tut's mummy was placed in three nested coffins.  The innermost coffin was made of solid gold and weighs around 240 pounds.  This mask covered the mummy's head and shoulders.  Since the king's face was wrapped, the mask would let the king be recognized in the hereafter.  On the king's brow are the head of a vulture and the sacred asp, the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt.  King Tut's necklace
Some cool figures This gives an idea of what parts of the museum are like Relief of dancers.  We liked this because it was beautiful and because there was painted dripped on it. Cool statue
This statue was assembled from hundreds of pieces which were formerly stored in 6 separate places.  Maggie acted as Dad's tour guide for the day.  They found most of the things they were looking for. Queen Neferati.  Wife of Akhenaton (who established a new monotheistic cult of Aton which was then undone by King Tut) and mother of six daughters.  The bust is unfinished and still bears the artist's markings.  Ramses II and Horun.  This shows the royal child Ramses being protected by a huge falcon.  The sculpture is a sort of visual pun or hieroglyph of the king's name:  ra (the sun disk),  mes (child with the finger in his mouth), and su (the plant held by the child).
Canopic jar for Tutankhamun.  During embalming, the viscera were removed, mummified, and placed in mini gold coffins. Those coffins were then placed in this canopic chest.  The chest was then put in a gilded wooden shrine. Hot tub for the hereafter Statue of Tutankhamun.  Tut was probabably a son of Aknenaton.  Tut was married to one of Akhenaton's daughters and became pharaoh when he was 10 or 12.  He reinstated polytheism and reopened temples closed by Akhenaton who had tried to foist monotheism on the country. Some Roman sarcophogi and one boy.
Tote looking at a statue of Ptah, chief deity of Memphis.  Ptah created the world and was married to the lion-headed Sakmet.  Memphis is where Egyptian kings were crowned.