Egyptian Museum and Khan el Khalili
Made in Egypt Tour 2008 Diary - Egyptian Museum and Khan el Khalili |
Egyptian Museum and Khan el Khalili
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Day 4: Egyptian Museum - Akhenaten's Coffin - Lunch at Floating Restaurant and Edward Junior's Silver Shop in the Khan el Khalili
I love the museum. All the museum exhibits are being moved around. Following the TV special where Zahi Hawass made his case for the identification of the coffin of Akenaten, they have moved it downstairs, into the Amarna area.
Akenaten Coffin - Recently Identified by Zahi Hawass
Amarna Canopic Chest - Owner UnidentifiedThe coffin sits beside a plexiglass coffin embedded with the strips of gold inlay that were taken from KV 55 to Berlin. They have also included an anonymous Canopic Chest frome Amarna, whose owner was surely royal, due to it's high quality. Eman and I wandered around looking into corners and closely examineding a large carved wall plaque of granite that showed Senefru along with Horus and Seth.This is situated in the central section of the Museum, called "The Lake" by the guides. It is unusual to see both Horus and Seth together. The piece had been found embedded in the floor of a Ptolomaic temple, along with a Ptolomaic copy of the same composition, dedicated to a Ptolemaic pharaoh. Eman had never even noticed it before. There is always something new that catches your attention in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. This will probably change in the new museum at Giza, The Grand Egyptian Museum, and something will be lost and something will be gained with new focused exhibits. Then we walked past an exhibiton of dozens of ushebti. I have become more and more entranced by the ushabtis and think that they are worthy of more reproduction as souvenirs. Many are in osiris style with closed crossed hands. Some show the actual instruments of work, a builders square or an adze. Ushebti are figurines that were supposed to animate after their owner came to his or her dwelling the afterlife. Chapter VI of the Book of the Dead gives them their magical command: "Oh thou shawabti (ushebti), if the Osiris Senmut (name of owner) is called on to do any work that has to be done in the Underworld--to cultivate the fields, to irrigate the desert, to carry sand to the East or the West--'Here am I! I will do it!' thou shalt say." Ushebti change in style, here are five replicas I have collected as souvenirs.
Souvenir Ushabtis that I have collected.Eman and I went by the Museum gift shop before entering, but didn't see many unsual things. All items were of top quality, but showing more about the artists of ancient Egypt than local modern artists. A little lifeless. The thing that caught my eye was a cow head with guilded face like the one in Tutankhamun's tomb. But, alas, too big and too heavy! As we were exiting the Egyptian Museum, a papyrus seller sneaked past the guards and offered 5 papyrus for 60 EP. Eman was aghast, first the sellers were not allowed in the pick-up area of the museum under the new security arrangement, and the papyrus local fair price is 2 EP. I think this is much cheaper than from our trip in 1987, and it is probably because the ones we bought then were all hand painted. This one is on real papyrus, but it is, I think, printed by machine. The seller said to her in Arabic, that he could tell best what price I would pay, he could see it in my eyes. And that is true. The souvenir sellers are expert at judging your interest in an item.
Papyrus Replica of a Theban Tomb Scene.We three settled for 5 for 25, but if Eman had not been with me, I probably would have paid more. This trip with Eman as companion, rather than only as guide is a bit different. She is treating me as her friend and leaps into the bargaining process with gusto. Normally, neither she, nor any other guide would intervene in the bargaining process. After all everyone bargains based on hidden informaton..how much you want it, what you have in your purse, how much it really costs you in your home currency. I think this practice is correct as I don't think that guides should do your bargaining for you, because the relationship formed in the bargaining becomes a part of your memories, your souvenir stories. Desire is built in the price component of every product in the world. Think of the desire to have a Gucci bag. Much of the price is the bag's workmanship, but there is large amount you will pay to own the brand Hossam had called when we were in the Museum via the ubiquitous mobile phone. I am not sure what the productivity increase has been for the guides, but the mobile phone is an essential tool for them nowadays. We had had coffee in the little restaurant upstairs from the museum bookshop. This is a nice place to stop for a bite to eat or something to drink. It is up the stairs, beside the entrance to the gift shop. Both Eman and Hossam saw other guides or antiquity services staff that they knew. We then went to the floating restaurant that one of the companies that Eman works for has on the Nile. Floating restaurants are big business in Cairo and very pleasant places to eat.
After lunch we went to the Khan el Khalili, starting with the market stalls around the most sacred mosque in Egypt the El Hussein Mosque. We shopped in the area of the Womens Gate. I bought some charms for the house that will repell envy and the evil eye. One is a saying from the Koran, the "Falaq" which means I protect myself by the Lord who made day and night, from evil and magic doers and from envy. One is a metal hand of Fatima. Another a large glass blue and white circle and a small string of blue and white "eyes". These are the reassuring superstitions that rule the households even in a country full of devout people, it is the same all over the world.
Household Charms for sale at Women's Gate during the Feast following Ramadan.
Crowd of Cairo locals at the market around the el Heusein Mosque.Inside the Khan el Khalili we stopped at a shop that sold silver and many wonderful wooden African things. I picked many silver items and then eliminated most as we weighed them. The salesman Edward Junior, showed me some lovely wooden items. There is always a risk that Australian customs will find they are contaminated, but I did buy three small wooden frogs that are instruments that make the sound of a frog croaking in the pond as the carved stick is drawn up their back. I wanted a long narrow carving with camels, and antelopes that reminded me of the Libian palette. I didn't have enought money so we promised to return the next day to pay the rest and pick up the carving.
The Shop of Edward Junior with Silver Jewelery and African carvings.The frogs were a hit with my relatives and I have the carving in front of me now while I type. Remember when you are traveling, usually the only regrets you have about souvenirs are the ones that you didn't buy! While walking in the Khan I fell in love with a carved lapis rabbit. Its price is 900, 9 EP per ounce, almost 200 USD. But I have left that for later. If I still have money on the last day. There are many beautiful examples of carved Lapis in shop windows of the Khan. (Alas my regret, I never got back for the rabbit!)
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The Egypt Holiday
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Very nice presentation, still my favorite thing is the small statue of Akenaten as a child.
