Cairo, day 2

For the second day we had the same driver and guide. The plan for the day was to go to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, then visit some historic sites around Cairo.

My first impression of Cairo yesterday when we arrived was it was dirty. There is dust everywhere, but I expected that from the desert. There is also garbage eveywhere, except for a few tourist areas. Some times the garbage is on fire.

The other thing I noticed driving around is how many unfinished buildings there are. There are hundreds of unfinished brick towers. They are being lived in because you can see laundry hanging to dry and satellite dishes on the top floor, next to the rebar structure for the next level. The guide said it is to save on tax.

Before we went to the museum I asked to stop at a convenience store for some water. I figured we could bring our own water so we wouldn't get ripped off for drinks at lunch again. We ended up going to a local supermarket, which was interesting. Mainly similar to most grocery stores, but the spice section was definitely something new to me.

We got to the museum and there was a lot of security, including sandbagged machine gun nests and APCs. I asked the guide what that was about and he said this is where some of the demonstrations happened during the unrest a few years ago. Not at the museum itself, but in the large square adjacent to it, which is what the soldiers were guarding.

Anyway the museums most famous pieces are the treasures and sarcophagi of King Tutenkhamen. I do remember seeing some of these treasures a long time ago when they were on display in Toronto, but I had to look up when that was. It was over 35 years ago, when I was 8. I think I can appreciate them a bit more now. There were no pictures allowed in the museum, but Yanmei snuck a couple with some Egyptian women she met. We were in the animal mummy section, which was pretty empty.

Unfortunately the museum is pretty disorganized and there are a lot of pieces without labels or descriptions. The guide said they are building a new and improved museum where they will fix these problems.

After the museum we went to see some historic religious sites. One of the great things about Egypt is how much history there is. Not just pyramids and pharaohs, but Greek, Roman and other civilizations too. We went to old Cairo.

The first place we went is a church built on the place where Joseph, Mary and Jesus are supposed to have stayed after they fled to Egypt. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I took a few anyway when no one was around.

After that we went to see a synagogue at the site where baby Moses was supposedly found on the Nile. They were more strict about the no photo policy and watched us the whole time. You can google Ben Ezra synagogue for pictures.

After that we went to the oldest mosque in Egypt. Pictures were allowed in the mosque. Yanmei was allowed in but she had to wear a robe to cover herself up.