Cairo… First Day
Not many places have a lower reputation than Cairo. It has 8 million residents in the city and 16 million in the metropolitan area, but the real story is that it is one of the most densely packed places on earth at 35,000 people per square kilometer (New York is a measely 10,000 per square kilometer and Mumbai is the only large city close to Cairo at 29,000). The streets are crazy and the drivers make it the most insane road-crossing place I have seen and well beyond what one would imagine. The air pollution makes Los Angeles look very clean. The ground pollution is just horrendous. The whole place seems like one haphazard jumble. In twenty-four hours, the reputation seems right on.
We visited the Egyptian Museum today. Our lives were in jeopardy a number of times just crossing the streets on the short walk from the hotel. And that was before the Ramadan folk got in their cars. The Egyptian Museum has the greatest antiquities on our planet. I would say that the objects left the Museo de Oro in Bogota and the Sipan Museum in Northern Peru in the dust (gold dust, that is). I raced for the Tut rooms right away and had about 25 solitary minutes in the main room with the mask, sacarphagi and other items before the first group arrived. The groups are daunting and they make the experience difficult. But we used our advanced anti-herd techniques to move around them.
I have wanted to see the Egyptian Museum and especially the King Tut exhibit since the 1970s when my dad told us about the exhibit he saw in Washington when Tut was first toured. I went to see a Tut exhibit last year in LA with Peggy and Gang, but it did not satisfy me because the best of Tut did not make the journey. I laughed today at each sign that showed a piece that is still on that tour (currently in Philly) because they could not have made up 10% of the permanent exhibit and they included none of the greatest pieces. For ninety minutes, my head spun looking at the Tut treasures. In the end, I realized the rest of the museum can only pale in comparison. Two more hours and I discovered that to be mainly true. Exceptions included the large granite statues of sphinxes, pharoahs, etc., a perfect carved tablet that is from 3200 BC (!), the animal mummies (truly ridiculous) and the royal mummies. The only disappointment with the mummies is that they only show the head and feet and sometimes the hands and I wanted to see the whole thing. Must be a Muslim thing… or just good taste of which I have little.
As good as the contents of the Egyptian Museum, I have to say that it is the worst large museum I have ever entered. The building is horrible, the displays are poor, the lighting really bad, the explanations… few, and the layout is about as good as the layout of the roads in Cairo – crazy! They are supposedly building a new museum near the Giza pyramid site, but a look at the official website leads me to believe it is stalled. Given the amount of people who travel from around the world to see this museum, I don’t understand it. I’m sorry to say that Egypt is not meeting its obligation to the world and given the quality of museums that I have seen in other poor countries which house world-class items, I don’t think they have a good excuse.
We ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in order to solve my craving for American food. I wondered what they would do about the pig sandwich that was on my mind and we discovered that it is pulled lamb in the Land of Islam. I ordered it and it did not match pork, but it was good enough. I know I am getting old because all of the guitars on display that I could see were from groups that I have never heard of. Ouch!
After lunch, we walked to Coptic Cairo. I found the walk to be mostly a horrendous walk through very lowly third-world, over-packed neughborhoods. The air pollution really bothered me and I don’t care for another long walk in this city. I would choose a walk through the grimiest areas of Mexico City or Sao Paulo before this one. The slums of Cairo must be horrendous. After visiting a couple of Coptic churches and a cemetery, we caught the metro back to our hotel area. Hopefully, this city will grow on me a bit because I have to admit that right now I miss that boring tranquility of Tunisia.
One last thing… The Cairenes are quite friendly people and that certainly helps. Unfortunately, their reputation for coniving and scamming the tourists (maybe each other and that is why the new Egyptian Museum is still only on paper???) seems very true and I find myself avoiding the helpful people as much as possible.
Tags: Africa, Travel
vagabondrick
Cairo – the place where they drive at night with no headlights! Doesn’t take long to figure out that it is never safe to cross the streets on foot! Stay safe….
Oh Rick: It was so nostaligic to read about your experience of where I was in 1976 – the same museum, the same Coptic area (I did a tour of a Coptic Church with the cleric as a tour guide explaining the significance of the customs, ect. – very fascinating) I remember the braying donkeys and roosters at dawn mixed with truck horns – and all of them traveling the same street. I don’t remember such bad pollution or smell back then so that probably is an unfortunate change over time. nr I hope you get a camel ride – and watch out for their spittle!