Today I woke up in Cairo with fabulous hair!
My guide Zeinab and her student Amira picked me up in a min bus and took me to the Museum.
Zeinab had her plans to show me the highlights and to share her immense knowledge of Egypt's ancient history, but I was easily distracted by the little things and my poor guides were dragged through every room of the museum.
As you enter there is a semi circle of busts from Greece and Rome. After my many hours of reading about Michelangelo and Leonardo Di Vinci I was intrigued by the sculptured folds in the fabric. You can see in the top image a beautifully crafted sculpture from ancient Rome while the more stylised one below was made much later - the lost art of the ancients in two figures. The art of sculpting realistic fabric folds was lost until the Renaissance.
In The Agony and the Ecstasy many artists debate about the nature of the wings and halos and how they should be depicted. This cabinet brought tears to my eyes... pre-christian angels with wings.
While hundreds of Chinese tourists push and shove and talk loudly in high pitched voices to crowd around the Tutankhamen , I snuck away into the other sections of the museum to look at the other treasures below.
Then we moved on to a section where many of the depicted people were designed to be realistic and present the actual features of the people they represent. The sculpture below is of a man with a large head. I said that maybe his friends called him "Sniper's Dream" but... no laughs.
Finally these lovely ladies dragged me out of the museum to the pyramids. Here are my contributions to the world. How many times have these been photographed already? Well, here are more photos...
I'm always intrigued by worn steps and floors... how many thousands of years have worn these pavers down?
Now, my friend Maxine, told me to take photos of people... so here are what can be found on the plateau viewing area for the three great pyramids.
Yes, I'm on a camel and it was the best roller-coaster in the world!
Walking to the Sphinx there are markets.
The Sphinx and then the Sphinx plus Vic.
Now this is the view from the restaurant where we ate lunch.
And that completes the Egyptology section of this blog-post. The rest of these images were taken on the trip back to the hotel.
I took a lot of images of the empty apartment blocks standing on the outside of Cairo. These are the result of the recent revolution. Once Mumbarak was removed there was limited government controls and hundreds of unlicensed buildings were put up - with no controls over installing foundations, plumbing etc. There are miles and miles of these shonky buildings. Some with a single inhabitant. Apparently they all need to be demolished for safety reasons. The land they are standing on was used for agriculture - now gone.
Zeinab had her plans to show me the highlights and to share her immense knowledge of Egypt's ancient history, but I was easily distracted by the little things and my poor guides were dragged through every room of the museum.
As you enter there is a semi circle of busts from Greece and Rome. After my many hours of reading about Michelangelo and Leonardo Di Vinci I was intrigued by the sculptured folds in the fabric. You can see in the top image a beautifully crafted sculpture from ancient Rome while the more stylised one below was made much later - the lost art of the ancients in two figures. The art of sculpting realistic fabric folds was lost until the Renaissance.
In The Agony and the Ecstasy many artists debate about the nature of the wings and halos and how they should be depicted. This cabinet brought tears to my eyes... pre-christian angels with wings.
Nerd Alert! Ancient measure stick!
Nerd Alert! Roman Dice!
Cat People... Cat People... Cat People... Cat People... Cat People...
While hundreds of Chinese tourists push and shove and talk loudly in high pitched voices to crowd around the Tutankhamen , I snuck away into the other sections of the museum to look at the other treasures below.
The photo below is a sneaky one. Behind the ladies seated at the bottom on the picture are Archaeologists in their natural habitat. Earlier this year there were newly discovered tombs in the news. Here we saw a team working on a mummy, measuring it and labelling all the details... very exciting.
I finished a great book recently about the history of colour pigments an the origin of how colours were made from ground stones and plants. Very excite to see this little parcel of "blue".
My Guides among the mummies...
This is a very famous image - published in many books about ancient Egypt. Click on it for detail of the brush strokes.
Finally these lovely ladies dragged me out of the museum to the pyramids. Here are my contributions to the world. How many times have these been photographed already? Well, here are more photos...
I'm always intrigued by worn steps and floors... how many thousands of years have worn these pavers down?
Now, my friend Maxine, told me to take photos of people... so here are what can be found on the plateau viewing area for the three great pyramids.
Here is the man that owned the camel I sat on. He has had Barak Obama sit on one of his camels!
Now the lady in purple in my tour guide Zeinab and she is FAMOUS! People from everywhere come over to say hello. She is the expert Egyptologist that trains all the tour guides and student. She can talk for ages, she know so much detail. Incredible! And a lovely lady. Flew all the way from Alexandra to guide little old me!
We then went to the tomb by the Sphinx. Here are some arty shots.
I was taken by the alabaster floors and said to Zeinab, "Imagine the people who have stepped on these floors!" She said - Julius Caesar, Napoleon, US Presidents.... so here. Have a look at this floor that has held the foot steps of history.
Walking to the Sphinx there are markets.
The Sphinx and then the Sphinx plus Vic.
No I didn't race around the other side to take the picture - just selfy-madness-reverse-image technology.
Now this is the view from the restaurant where we ate lunch.
And that completes the Egyptology section of this blog-post. The rest of these images were taken on the trip back to the hotel.
I took a lot of images of the empty apartment blocks standing on the outside of Cairo. These are the result of the recent revolution. Once Mumbarak was removed there was limited government controls and hundreds of unlicensed buildings were put up - with no controls over installing foundations, plumbing etc. There are miles and miles of these shonky buildings. Some with a single inhabitant. Apparently they all need to be demolished for safety reasons. The land they are standing on was used for agriculture - now gone.
Tomorrow - more Egypt.
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