Mummies, King Tut and Camels - Cairo Part 2

After our papyrus museum and pyramids visit, we probably could have just tapped out and slept the rest of the day but what fun would that have been?! So off we went to the Cairo Museum aka the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. There are no cameras allowed in the museum so I apologize that the photos included in this post are not my own but they do accurately describe the greatness of this museum. As we were walking through the many many aisles of sarcophagi and mummy rooms, Dan proclaimed the place was "an embarrassment of riches" and he was so right. They have so much history that there are just wooden crates stacked in the corner because John Doe wasn't important enough to have his tomb on display for the world to see.

I patiently walked throughout the museum but I knew what I was there for: the mummy room and King Tut. There are two royal mummies rooms and they are as creepy and fascinating as you'd expect. I won't post any photos as they are legitimately eerie but search Museum of Cairo mummy room if you are interested. Ramses II was in there which was pretty cool to see even if he was a bit raisin-like. We walked through room after room of incredible statues and tombs and stone carvings that are just massive. Here's a picture of the main hall so you can get an idea of what I mean:

 (photo credit: here)

Tucked away in the back of the museum's second floor is the jackpot: a part of the burial chamber of Tut's tomb and a whole room dedicated to stuff that belonged to him, including two of his sarcophagi and the imfamous gold headdress/mask. It was breathtaking to stand in a room with these artifacts that graced the pages of our history books throughout school.

(photo credit: here)

(photo credit: here)

When we left the museum we were sitting outside and Dan commented that he doesn't think he'll ever be able to go to an Egypt exhibit again because there's zero chance it can compare to this museum. We joked that we will not be chaperoning if/when our children have the obligatory Egypt study unit that involved a museum field trip.

We got back to the pyramids/our home base for the day and had some lunch at a nearby restaurant. We then rested a bit before our sunset camel ride. The compound which contains the pyramids closes at 4pm, which we suspect is an effort to limit vandalism or any fishy happenings in the dark. As a result, we couldn't enter the compound on our camels so we went around back out to the Sahara Desert and took some panoramic photos with the pyramids from a distance. Dan drove his camel and my camel followed along behind with our guide riding alongside on a horse. Dan joked with the guy asking if Morocco was to the left. The guide said yeah, about 3 years to the left. Everyone loves a little desert camel humor.

When we arrived, our guide had us try every pose under the sun while he snapped photo after photo. Clearly not his first rodeo. 

 After our camel photo shoot, we headed back to the Inn for the final time. We went up on the roof to watch the evening's Sound and Light show. They light up the pyramids with colored flood lights and tell a story over loudspeakers as though the Sphinx is recounting Egyptian history and the creation of the pyramids. It was cool to see but a little underwhelming. When they called it a light show we were expecting some Vegas New Years Extravaganza, not colored flood lights. But hey, if this is our only complaint, I'd say we did pretty darn well.

After the show, we got a 2 hour nap in and then headed back to the airport for a bite to eat, a beer, and boarded our flights back to Accra. That Monday was a long day but it was totally worth being a little behind on sleep for a few days to have seen one of the Original 7 Wonders of the World.