Grand Egyptian Museum, Giza Pyramids, and Sphinx

The Grand Egyptian Museum and the pyramids. I am overwhelmed. First the museum. As ever, at a fast pace, but with Ehab at the helm, we bypassed the main area and went straight to the boat of King Khufu, the oldest boat in the world, circa 2570 BCE. Found in 1954 next to his pyramid, it was reassembled and given the place of honor in its own building. Eventually it will be joined by another. 

Next, the treasure of Tutankhamen, 1347 BCE. Gold, gold, gold including the 11+ kilogram mask that never leaves Egypt. But also all the things the king would need in the afterlife: food, clothing, chariots, weaponry, furniture, etc. 

My favorite: the 365 small figurines of the king that would handle all the work he was going to be required to do, one for each day. Exactly what I need at home for my gardening.

Given an hour of free range, I headed to the gift shop for post cards (meh selection), a cat magnet for our cat sitter Vera (all I could find)*, a pillow cover with a sacred ibis (will go with my dingo one from Australia) and a string bracelet with an ankh (to replace my one of the Virgin which came apart Monday). 

We opted to get lunch early to avoid the crowds and to sit. Looking back, I wished we had returned to the galleries to run through the ones in chronological order. Easy to say after having rested. 

On the bus to the pyramids at Giza. First a chance to get on a camel and have one’s picture taken. Grant opted in, not I. I did get nuzzled.

Even with Viking’s driving us a close as possible, the beauty of a tour, still a lot of walking. We managed to circumnavigate the great pyramid of Khufu, 2560 BCE, trailed by our security guard, and I climbed up to the entrance (too small and crowded for me to consider going in). We just admired Khafre’s, 2570 BCE, and Menkaure’s, 2490 BCE, from afar.

A bus ride to the sphinx, 2500 BCE, cooled us enough to walk nearer. Were we on our own, we could have ridden a horse or in a horse drawn carriage to other viewpoints. All around were vendors of rugs, statues and trinkets. I wonder who would buy the sheets of coins. Are there that many numismatists visiting?

Dinner at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. Grilled chicken and veggies for me and a house salad the chef sent out. The lettuce was delicious, which is not something I usually notice. Grant’s seafood pizza was at 14” in diameter. We each have lunch for tomorrow.

I negotiated with our hotel’s concierge to have a messenger buy and bring postcard stamps from the post office, have the concierge affix them to my cards, then messenger them to the post office. He sent a photo via WhatsApp to show all this was done. Honest to a fault. Probably this was the procedure for valuable packages.

*I found a zippered cloth case embroidered with a cat which I will give to Vera. Maybe for pencils or other small items.

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