Egyptian Museum

This is not a very good blog entry so forgive me in advance. It's very difficult to take decent photos since most of the objects are protected by glass and there are lots of people getting in the way.

The most useful feature of this blog will be the links to articles about the various objects, as well as better photos.

The Egyptian Museum entrance.

Ramesses II lurking off to the left but a bunch of people blocking the view.

Most of the exhibits have descriptions such as the Palermo Stones which list the rulers of ancient Egypt.

Ramesses II.

Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was not a Pharoah. He was an architect and you can read more about this interesting man here.

Underneath the glass is the Rosetta Stone which helped immensely in translating Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

Boats.

More about Senwosret III. As you might expect, some of the Pharaohs were much better than your run of the mill Pharaoh. He was one of the exceptions.

More about Menkaure. His pyramid is the smallest of the three large pyramids at Giza.

If you have ever wondered how they got the lids of a sarcophagus to be the right size, here is the answer. This photo shows the box shape.

It's a simple solution. The lid is part of the original block of stone and is sliced off the the side away from the opening at the end on the process. This lid must have broken before they were finished.

Chephren is also known as Khafra and his pyramid is the second largest at Giza. The experts think he was responsible for the Sphinx.

The scribe, one of the most famous sculptures from Ancient Egypt. Scribes were enormously powerful members of society.

This statue is tiny and is of Cheops (Khufu) for whom the largest pyramid at Giza was built. It is the only representation of him that has been found.

This was a bed. The curved object at this end supported your head.

There is a certain similarity with the hairstyles of the two women, one of whom was Queen Nofret.

More about Pepi I here.

It appears that Ty was a high priest.

That is a face.

More about Queen Nofret. She was the one with the hair style a few photos back.

Queen Hatshepsut whose Temple we had visited at Luxor.

Her she is again.

And here is Hatshepsut once more.

And again. If you lived long enough, you got to have your image carved again and again. Imagine how many photos have been taken of Queen Elizabeth II.

Micheal points out another boat scene.

I went into the Tutankhamun exhibit. This shows the layout of his tomb and what objects were where.

His coffin was enclosed in four large boxes like a Russian Matryoshka doll. This is the outermost and largest box.

I rather liked this box surrounded by goddesses.

Decoration on the box.

Goddesses.

A bed.

Games that Tut played with.

The nine pieces of gold represented the nations he ruled over.

His ceremonial sandals.

Throne.

Statue of Tut.

Everyday sandals that he wore.

Sandals from when he was a child.

I also visited the mummies section and that was in some ways the most powerful section of the Museum. Here you could see the shriveled up bodies of many of the Pharaohs, including Ramesses II as well as Hatshepsut. They were real people. 

When I get home, I must learn more about the subject.