The Grand Finale: Grand Egyption Museum and Souk Visit

We took an optional tour on our final day in Cairo. It was one of the highlights of the trip! We started at the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM), had lunch at another incredible restaurant, and then finished the day by visiting a local souk (market) in old Cairo.

Cairo is a city of 25,000,000 people and is very spread out. Not surprisingly, there is lots of traffic as well. The roads in town are great, though, but it hasn’t always been that way. In the last ten years, Cairo’s roads have gone from 118^th place to 13^th place in an international ranking. Construction is visible everywhere!

The museum itself is very new. It’s so new that the King Tutankhamen exhibit has not yet opened. There is plenty to see even without seeing King Tut’s stuff. The cost to build the GEM is one billion dollars and it contains over 15,000 artifacts (with more being added all the time). It is built to resemble a pyramid and not only are the pyramids of Giza visible from the museum; soon it will be possible to walk from the museum to the pyramids. Personally, I would not want to given that the walk is over a mile and it will be in the blazing sun (unless they put a roof over the walkway).

The entry has an interesting feature. There are images of cartouches to the left and right of the doorway, but one is missing. There is also a large statue of Ramses II in the foyer. On October 22^nd, the sun comes in to cover Ramses. You will notice that Ramses left leg is forward; this is true of all statues of pharaohs. The left leg is to the west, the direction of the afterlife. So, the pharaoh’s first step is towards the afterlife.

One of the most impressive parts of the museum is the grand staircase up to the displays. It is divided into 4 sections:

1) pharaohs

2) divine houses

3) kings and gods

4) the afterlife – a rough journey

After climbing the stairs (or taking the escalator), you enter the main part of the museum. This is divided into three basic areas: society, kingship, and beliefs. You can also see the pyramids from here:

I will post some photos, but this is a place that to appreciate, you really need to see it in person, preferably with a guide that can explain the significance of what you are seeing.

Society:

A scribe was a very important person in ancient Egypt

Kingship:

Beliefs:

Queen Hatshepsut depicted as a man; her mummy was found in 2007

I am sure you have heard of the Rosetta Stone. This stila has been proven to exist prior to the Rosetta Stone. Four pieces had previously been discovered; the fifth and final piece was found the day before we were at the museum! The stila shows the same text written three different ways: heiroglyphics, heirotics (3000 BC) and demotics (root word democracy – for the people)

After our time at the museum, we were driven through Cairo to the Skyrim restaurant. I must give Gate 1 credit – every meal we were treated to on this tour was exceptional. This was no different. The restaurant has a view of the city, though as you can see, it was a bit smoggy.

On the way to the souk, we passed by the infamous “Garbage City”. It isn’t quite what I expected. If you look in the apartments, you will see bags of trash.

We also passed by some interesting places. There was a huge graveyard area; it seemed to go on for miles.

We entered the old Cairo area and walked toward the souk. Lots of colorful things to see!

We walked quickly through the souk and found a place to get a cold drink and people watch. Vendors came into the restaurant and pestered us. There was an employee whose job it was to chase them away, but they either paid him off or went behind his back when he wasn’t looking.