To our relief we stopped half way to Cairo to pick up our guide and Egyptologist, Alliyah.
She lead us though the Museum Garden where we could take a few pictures. 
Lotus and Papyrus symbols of upper and lower egypt. In pond outside museum.
Lotus and Papyrus symbols of upper and lower egypt. In pond outside museum.
Outside museumInside we saw the Royal Mummies including Hatsutsup (the only female Pharaoh), Rameses, and Akhenaton whose skull really did look the statues of him. He is the king who wanted to make people equal to each other (men and women; servants and kings) he changed art to show men and women as more similar to each other (statues of him have hips and a full belly) his wife is pictured as an equal to him in all of his depictions of them on the throne. He changed religion too so that people worshipped one God (Aten the sun god who is shown in his art as a sun with rays coming down ending in hands.) He is the father of King Tuthankumen.
We also visited the Animal mummy room and Tuthankamen’s treasures- the mask, his bows and arrows, boats, throne, golden chairs, and jewelry. His beds with legs of lion feet and heads for protections. The tall beds were used by the embalmers to prepare the mummy and the short ones for sleeping. He even had a folding bed for traveling or taking out hunting. There where giant square boxes that nested like Chinese boxes covered in gold. Inside those they found sarcophagus shaped like the shape of his mummy.There was one room with things from the mother of one king who loved her so much she got a pyramid. There was a pink granite box carved out of one huge piece of rock. She also had a golden jewelry box as long a room and a foot wide! She had a tent bed and the posts and bed where covered in gold. Originally sheets of gold hung as curtains! This queen was Heres Hetep.
We also learned rules for Egyptian statues. For living people: one foot is in front and the arms are away from the body to depict motion. If there is a beard and it is straight it means the person was still alive.
For statues of people after they died, the body looks like a mummy shape with arms crossed in a royal position or bound to the body. The feet are together. Beard is turned up to indicate that they have “gone up”
The museum was not like a US museum. It looks like a giant storage facility. Things heaped up every where. Not many labels. It was enormous and we only spend about 3 hours there but could have spent several days! The second floor with the royal jewelry rooms was overwhelming!
Next we went to Khan Al Kalili market. We started with a coffee in one of the many coffee shops there. We walked through a few of the aisles of the ancient market there. The guard warned us that all the shops would be the same but we didn’t find that to be true for us. We spent about an hour there. Eliza and Doeri both bargained for a few things there. One vendor gave Eliza a tiny scarab. Eliza haggled for a drawing pad with a leather cover with camels on the front and a king on the back. The alleyways are a jumble of copper, scarves, jewelry, cheap statues of gods, goddesses, animals. As the tourists walk through the touts try anything to get your attention and keep you engaged until they make a sale. “$1 for postcards? Pretty lady, forget the prices, just tell me what you want and I’ll make you a price. I’m from Texas! Where are you from? ” Some even sing out commercial jingles just to get you to make eye contact with them!
We will be going back later in the trip for more fun there!
Khan Al KalilliFor dinner we went to the home of Yassir, his wife and twin 6 year old sons (Akmed and Yaya) She prepared a rare rice dish while we watched. She had already prepared a green vegetable not unlike spinach. In another plan she melted butter in which she caramelized garlic. Yassir explained that his father in law brought the exotic rice we would eat from his village in another part of Egypt and that the test of the
cooking of the dish was about to happen. If the cook put the garlic into the green sauce and it floated the batch was no good. If it sinks the batch is good. The tension built as the garlic cooked and the smell filled the small apartment. When the moment came Yassir proclaimed, “Ah it sank. THAT is my wife! She is a great cook.” The meal also included home made flat bread, salad, pickled radishes (like Zankou Chicken!) roasted chicken, and the special rice. The rice itself had a delicious chewy texture with bits that were browned from the bottom of the pot. The green sauce over it was special! For desert we were treated to guava drink made with fresh fruit, milk, sugar and ice. We sat in the living room (furniture was gold painted wood with generous cushions & a very large TV that was never turned off) and our hostess peeled fresh fruit- juicy fresh oranges, mandarins and small and intensely flavored bananas.
Eliza drew some pictures for the boys in here new sketch book. She drew a picture of Goofy who we learned is called Ban Dak in Egypt.
One of our favorites moments was when Yassir asked Eliza, “does it scare you that my wife is covered?” (This is when mom held her breath, wondering if Eliza would say she reminded her of a NINJA as we had discussed earlier in the day about women in black hijabs walking along the freeway with bundles on their head!) instead she said, “no it doesn’t scare me.” Yassir said, “Why not? What do you think of that?” and Eliza charmed us all when she answered, “I think she is very beautiful underneath.” Yassir in a surprised and pleased voice said, “How did you know!!!!” The wife also reacted with a laugh of appreciation! We were all impressed with how cool she was under pressure.
We made a gift of some jars of jam from our home and some beach ball globes we brought to show the boys where we lived and where Egypt was. In the conversation we discovered that he is the general manger of the tour company we are traveling with! He was the designer of the tour we were on. We were honored by the fact that he had selected us to dine in his home. We finally had to say reluctant good byes because the driver was into serious overtime! Being in someone’s home was a great experience!
Apologies for the rough draft nature of the blog. The internet connection is purchased by the minute!
Love from Doeri, Eliza and Michael
