This was another special day in Cairo, and our last one until we return from the south. Lou and I decided that we had see something other than Islamic cultural artifacts before we left the city, and we discovered that our hotel was nicely halfway between Islamic Cairo and Downtown. So we headed downtown to the Egyptian Museum.
What a beautiful walk it was through streets that were almost empty for Friday prayers. And the city held another surprise with its beautiful European section. Like the space in many of the mosques here reminded me of Spanish cathedrals, the parks and boulevards of this section suggested Madrid. Facades with colonnades, undulating buildings with delicate balconies Deco design with strong lines, and open roundabouts holding statues are miles removed from the churn of the Islamic city. It was a fantastic walk down to the museum, and Lou and I talked about renting an apartment here for a month and popping off on weekends to Amman or Tunis. It's such a beautiful, comfortable area.
And it was a thrill to finally get to where we were going, too. The Egyptian Museum is a world class collection whose turn-of-the-century salmon building is stuffed with Egyptian artifacts. Most collections of Egyptian items I've seen are small, and the items are parsed and analysed individually; this collection is so vast that no one has even tried. Items are somewhat grouped by dynasty, but as the museum is moving to new quarters, pieces are crated and set on pallets throughout, and many pieces have been stored in corners or in alcoves awaiting shipment to the new facility. And many of the ones that aren't packed have been shifted around from room to room. All this, added to a Victorian curiosity concept of curating, and we found there was really no way walk though the museum in a deliberate way.
So we decided to walk around and linger on the parts we especially liked. We both really enjoyed the a section dedicated to the Amarna -- Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and a couple of other pharohs -- whose art is especially distinct because the figures are slim with faces that have exaggerated lips and high foreheads. You don't see these figures in a lot of other places. And I continued to be surprised by the naturalism in this art that I always thought of as formal. From statues of scribes to those of pharohs and bondsmen, there are often unique facial features and realistic musculature. And I enjoyed seeing more examples of Hellenistic art, this time of Egyptian origin. A statue with an absolutely classical face dressed in Egyptian garb was especially striking.
We finally had to leave the museum, so we headed back to the hotel, stopping into a cafe to sit among the (mostly) men smoking shisha and watching soccer. We were extremely close to the museum, but it seemed like this little cafe rarely saw tourists, and we were content to sit there a bit and have some tea.
Back at the hotel, I went to pick up some glasses and lenses I'd ordered, and Lou and I set out to find someplace to eat. One thing was sure --there just weren't many restaurants to be seen in our area. However, following the advice of a guy at the hotel, we found an alleyway between big buildings that was full of food joints and people, so we settled into a place that does Egyptian home cooking and had a hearty, warm meal.
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