The Land Of The Pharaohes

My Friend AGFH has requested that I tell more of our travels in the wonderful country of Egypt, and I am happy to do so.

Our first visit was in the summer of 1990 while spending a holiday on the island of Cyprus we had the opportunity to take a four day cruise to Israel and Egypt. We felt that this would be a great chance to visit two of the most historic places on earth and gladly paid the price and departed from the port of Limasol and sailing overnight reached to port of Haifa by morning we then traveled by bus to Jerusalem and visited the Wailing Wall and the Old Bazaar, We then visited Bethlehem and although neither H.B. or Myself are particularly religious it is impossible to not be in awe of the historic significance of these places.After spending a wonderful day in Israel we returned to our ship for a good meal and a night's sleep while we sailed to the ancient seaport of Port Said where we boarded our tour bus for the journey alongside of the Suez Canal to the capital city Cairo. When we reached the outskirts of the city we got our first view of the greatest building work that I have ever seen, The Great Pyramid of Giza and close by the Sphinx. Our pleasure was increased by the fact that we were given the chance to make the last part of the journey by Camel, and the chance to do this, as had the builders of this amazing structure over 4000 years ago.
After spending some time exploring the sights of the Giza Plateau, We boarded the bus again and traveled into the city for a visit to the Central Museum, this is the repository for the greatest works of art and the artifacts of ancient Egypt, and contains, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful works of art that are in this world.

On the ground floor of the Museum there are many artifacts which have been recovered from tombs and temples all over the country and literally hundreds of Mummies many of which are of Kings and Queens, but when you travel to the first floor there is only one way to describe it and I will use the same words as Howard Carter did when he first opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 "I have seen Wonderful Things".

The whole of the first floor of this great Museum is devoted to the funerary goods of the boy king Tutankhamun
From the golden chariots to the exquisitely carved statues the artistry and quality of these objects show the respect that was given to the King of the ancient land. The quantity of these exhibits is so great that I cannot even begin to list them. The crowning glory of all is a separate room which contains only 3 objects. To the left a coffin made of Cedar wood and covered in pure gold with the image of the King carved on the top. To the right The inner coffin Which had contained the mummy of pharaoh, a solid gold jewel encrusted coffin weighing over 250 pounds. And finally in the centre of the room, quite possibly the greatest work of art of all, The Death Mask of Tutankhamun. I am not going to try to describe the mask as I am sure that you have seen photographs, what I will say is that no photograph can do this beautiful thing justice you need to see it with your own eyes to appreciate the skill and artistry that went into its creation. We were so impressed by Cairo that we revisited the city in 1993. And spent more time in the museum.

In 1997 we decided that the time had come to see more of Egypt and booked a 7 day cruise on the River Nile. Tomorrow I will tell more of our journey and experiences in the land of the pahrohes.