The Egyptian Museum, just off Tahrir Square, reminded me of a gigantic curio cabinet.
If all goes according to plan, a grand new showcase for many of the museum's treasures will open later this year in an enormous building within view of the Pyramids. Financed by the Japanese government, it's another example of how Egypt always has depended on the kindness of foreigners to display its archaeological treasures. Until then, mobs of tourists and schoolchildren will just have to sweat it out in the now shabby museum that the French built at the turn of the 20th century.
The place isn't even air conditioned but it definitely has an old-world charm.
Security is tight--you can't go wrong with a Yale lock!
Low tech mirrors enable visitors to view carvings beneath sarcophagi.
If there were a "Real Housewives of Cairo" franchise, Shaimaa, our freelance guide, could star. She lives in a tony suburban neighborhood called the 6th of October. It marks the date Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula in 1967, long before her birth. A progressive Muslim woman with two sons, Shaimaa abandoned her hijab at age 16. She's also an ardent supporter of el-Sisi.
When I asked if Queen Hatshepsut might have been transgender because of her beard, Shaimaa said no but pointed to a depiction the controversial pharaoh who steered Egypt towards monotheism. "Look at the femininity of Akhenaten's lower body, it's almost as if he's pregnant."
Akhenaten, husband of Nefertiti and reputed father of Tutankhamun, certainly has androgynous features in this sculpture.
Several of the museum's kitschier artifacts appealed to me more than the boy king's treasures.
Although I did covet Tut's amazing shoe box!
The Hall of Mummies costs extra. I snapped this one before a guard gently rebuked me.
Egypt's most powerful pharaoh lays in a case nearby. It seems a tad disrespectful that Ramesses II has been dug up and put on display for the masses. How the world has changed!
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