The title says it all. Cairo is most definitely a crazy, crazy place. Our first full day in Cairo and the plan was to get Warwick registered at the conference and then head towards the Egyptian Museum. We passed up the numerous requests while leaving the hotel to take a taxi and in hindsight that might not have been such a good idea.
While everything appears to be in easy walking distance, this city is not designed for walking. There are no traffic lights and no pedestrian crossings and I’m not exaggerating, you basically take your life into your own hands trying to cross 3-4 lanes of traffic going each way. There are Tourist Police sitting at the side on the road who will occasionally get up from their seat to help you but only after you have been standing there for some time and even then don’t expect it. You are also constantly harassed by every taxi that goes past and there are lots of them.
Our plans to visit the museum were delayed when we met a nice older Egyptian man on the street who helped with directions and informed us that the museum wasn’t open for another hour. I should have realised at that point that something was up cause the guide book said it opened 2 hours earlier. But he was a fellow scientist specialising in botany and would be attending a conference in Sydney in 2 months time. He suggested we spend the hour in one of the nicer parts of town and volunteered to show us where....leading us straight to his papyrus shop. Looking back we were both impressed by how smooth he was getting us into his shop, offering us mint tea and a free piece of papyrus with an Egyptian painting on it. Then he indicated we would need to pay 400 EGP (80 AUD) for a second piece of papyrus, which he had already written Warwicks name in hieroglyphics on. Yep it was at that point that we decided it was time to get the hell out of there.
The Egyptian Museum itself was interesting though it was more like a warehouse of Egyptian artefacts with very little information on what was being displayed or the history behind it. It is amazing though that you’re looking at things that are 3000-4000 years old. My favourite was the Amarna Room, which covered the time of the rebel pharaoh Akhenaten in the 14th century BC. The art from this era was different from the past as it depicted people with elongated heads and protruding bellies.
Tomorrow we’re off to Giza to see the pyramids and the Sphinx, which if its anything like today, will be an interesting experience
Pics taken from outside the Egyptian Museum (no photos inside please!)
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