I was still exhausted from the previous day’s trip to the pyramids, so all I could muster on my second day in Cairo was a walk to the Egyptian Museum, which houses most of the important artifices from the Pharonic era. Photos were forbidden, so I’m afraid I don’t had much to show, but I do have a few things to tell.
Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the items the museum held. Many of the pieces appear in history and art history textbooks all over the world. Unfortunately, the museum does a lacklustre job of displaying and interpreting their fantastic collection. Most items aren’t even identified, and even the most important objects merit less than two paragraphs, where they might be given their own room with wall to wall displays in Europe. It seems like the Museum doesn’t have the funding to make the most of its collection.
The highlight of the museum is of course the gold burial mask of Tutankhamen, an object which itself is a symbol of Egypt. It was infamously damaged in January of this year, and the evidence is very clearly visible.
Many items were still in crates, leaving one wing of the museum looking like the final scene in an Indiana Jones movie.
I think I had a better experience because of my prior mnowledge of the objects I was seeing. I’m not sure how much the average tourist gets out of their experience. Currently there are plans to move the entire museum to a new location near the pyramids, and hopefully this changes things.
