After seeing Age of Ultron yesterday, my evening sorta wound down to having dinner at the rooftop restaurant, Windows of the World, and snapping a few pictures of the Cairo night lights from there, and from the balcony of my suite.
This last photo of Tahrir Square with the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in the foreground kinda struck me: Here is a major Cairo landmark that is right across the street from me. "I'm gonna go visit tomorrow"!
30 April 2015
The next morning, I headed out across the street to the Museum. I bought a ticket at the booth, and no sooner do I step into the courtyard was I approached by a tour guide. "Hello! Welcome to The Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Would you like a guide of the museum?". A rather friendly gentleman, with a bit of a jolly demeanor, dressed in bright colored clothes, and with a tour guide badge clearly visible. "No, but thank you", was my reply, to which he responded "No problem. If you change your mind, my name is Mohammed, and I'll be right here". I noticed, as I was walking away from the conversation, that all the tour guides out here were in a sembly of a line, and were approaching visitors in an orderly fashion. It was as civilized as a taxi stand line. I was impressed.
I walked into the museum, and there were signs everywhere that warn not to take photos or videos, along with the standard No Smoking sign. Of course the place is jam packed with tourists, and some of them are taking pictures. I shouldn't be delighted to see when they are caught by Egyptian Police Officers and asked "No Pictures, please!". But I am.
There are no museum guards. The security in the entire building is run by the Egyptian Police, and with good reason: These are national, if not world, treasures. I'm happy to see the police presence. They are patrolling the corridors. They are standing at intersections. They are ever present.
The police regiment is overshadowed by the enormous amount of Egyptian artifacts. I walked through the place for about an hour, and I hadn't strayed to far from the lobby. There's just so much to stop and look at.
After that hour, I was approached by another man, not at all a gentleman, as I characterized the tour guide outside the museum. The guy was not groomed, had clothes that were poorly kept, and smelled terribly. His cap looked like he allowed a few trucks to run over it before putting it on this morning. I remember it well because it was in my face for most of my interaction with him.
"You need a guide.", he informed. He was not asking me if I wanted a guide. Trying to catch my breath from being asphyxiated from this guy's smelly aura, I said "No, Thank you". I turned, but and before I could walk away, he moved in front of me and said "You need a guide. If you don't have a guide, you're not gonna know about anything you see in the museum. Your visit to the museum will be wasted. Your visit to Egypt will be wasted. Your life will be wasted (No bullshit, he said that last line)". At that point, I was offended and perturbed, but I composed myself and said "A life of exploration is not a waste". Best I could come up with being short of breath. I turned, and walked away.
As I ventured to the west side of the museum, I found some crates with the return address "From Egyptian Embassy, Washington, D.C. USA" It was somehow comforting to see where these crates came from, since I was just at the D.C. Egyptian embassy no more than 2 months before to get my Visa.
As I walked through the museum on my own, and saw other people and other groups with guides, I decided maybe I should've taken Mohammed on as a guide. I had seen a large group of Chinese people being led around by an obviously Arabic gentleman speaking perfect Chinese. I recognized some of the words and phrases from my time on the Florida and it's officers.
I went back to the entrance, but before I got there, I found that Mohammed has been hired by a family, so I decided to press on on my own. I met another guide on the second floor. Although she was leading a couple around, she did confirm my observations about the guides in the courtyard. Guides are assigned as whomever is next in line. She was far more attractive than Mohammed was.
I was in the museum for about 3 hours, and was on sensory overload. The amount of artifacts and antiquities inside the museum is overwhelming. At that point, I had probably seen only ⅔rds of what was exhibited.
I really needed to leave. To return another day and view the rest. It's an amazing museum.
I went back across the street to my hotel, entered my room and found this...
It's cute, but the hotel knows I'm alone. This, incidentally, is the only photo I took the whole day.
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