Egyptian Museum
The size and scope of the famous Egyptian Museum located in downtown Cairo is
impressive. As we entered the historic site, it felt although we were walking into a giant
labyrinth. An overwhelming number of rooms and corridors were filled with ancient
artifacts from almost every period of ancient Egyptian history. Over 12,000 objects lay
exposed inside glass boxes to be admired by visitors. With so much to see in the museum,
we compressed what ideally could have taken two visits into one. Walking swiftly from
exhibit to exhibit, we tried to take in all that the museum had to offer. From ancient
Egyptian jewelry, to animal mummies and Royal Tombs of Tanis, our journey through
the museum provided us with a window into the Egyptian way of life, ranging from the
pre-historic era to the Greco-Roman period. The highlight of my visit through the
museum was the fabulously gilded death mask of Thuyu and Tutankhamun’s amazing
wardrobe.
Yuya and Thuyu were the parents of Queen Tiy, and Tutankhamun’s great-grandparents.
At the time, their tombs were one of Egyptian archaeology’s amazing discoveries. Found
in the Valley of the Kings in 1905, the tombs not only were effectively unharmed but
they also contained a number of fascinating treasures, including five ornate coffins as
well as their well-preserved mummies. I was most impressed by Thuya’s death mask,
which was only one of the several interesting objects in the room that was designated
specifically for Yuya and Thuyu. It seemed like a large amount of time and energy must
have gown into the creation of this mask. It was covered in gold and created so that it
closely resembled the physical characteristics of Thuyu. During my stay at this particular
exhibit I learned that the face of the Mummy was typically wrapped in linen, however, it
was important to place a mask with the actual features of the deceased over the covered
visage to ensure the recognition of the person by its soul in the afterlife. I also learned
that when a pharaoh dies, he or she is buried with not only their personal riches, but their
servants and pets were also laid to rest with them. It was believed that the Pharaoh
needed all of his or her everyday possessions to ensure a similar way of life in the
afterworld.
Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for a short period of nine years during the 14th BC (1336-1327
BC). It was the belated discovery of his tomb in November of 1922, and its amazing
stockpile of treasures, that was his claim to fame. It was common for thieves to steal the
treasures inside the coffins of Pharaohs. In this case, however, Tutankhamun’s tomb was
completely in tact. An astonishing 1700 items were documented, drawn and
photographed ‘in situ’ before being relocated to a laboratory, for stabilizing and cleaning,
and subsequently housed in the Egyptian Museum. It took almost ten years to unpack the
entire Tutankhamun collection. Although two life-size statues of the Pharaoh and his
amazing death mask are popular exhibits, his amazing wardrobe found on the first floor
in Room nine gave me the most insight into his life. The Pharaoh was buried with enough
clothing to fill a present-day wardrobe. Some of the items we saw included tunics
covered in beading and gold discs, ritual robes made of fake fur, a large number of
underwear, and socks that were worn with flip flop type sandals.
The most famous of tourist attractions in Cairo was built in 1902 by the Service des
Antiques de L’Egypt. Prior to its construction, the relics and antiquities of Egypt were
housed in the Bulaq museum until its flooding in 1878 when many artifacts were
destroyed or stolen. To date, the number of objects housed in the Egyptian museum has
outgrown the famous site. Consequently, plans to build a new US500 million ‘Grand
Museum of Egypt’ are in the making.