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National Museum (Tripoli, Libya)
by koshkha
On our first morning in Tripoli we went to visit the National Museum which is located on the edge of the Old City. The museum is housed in a wing of the Red Castle - an old building that was once an armoury but was converted to a museum in 1919 by the Italians who were fond of promoting the glories of Ancient Rome. Fortunately the ... glories of Ancient Rome are not in short supply in the land of Libya!
Our bus dropped us off in Green Square just outside the building and we met the guide who'd been booked to take us around. I believe that it's a condition of entry that foreign tourists have to visit with an official accredited tour guide and in our case, this was a little man with more knowledge than was sometimes entirely necessary.
~Having a Go at the Americans - a Gaddafi Speciality~
All bags must be deposited at the cloakroom. I'm not sure if they think we'll somehow walk out with a two thousand year old 2 ton statue tucked in a backpack, or if they just don't want anyone to turn round quickly and knock something valuable, but we'd been warned and left all non-essential items on the bus. We passed through a security gate and waited whilst our guide picked up the tickets, leaving us time to browse the items in the bookstore. They do an impressive range of political postage stamps, most of them intended to be very rude about Americans. As for entrance prices, I didn't get any idea what was charged at this or any of the other museums since such transactions were always handled by our guides.
~A Sneak Preview~
Entering the museum, the first room offers a mix of treasures that seemed to have been picked out for special attention as particularly fine examples of their kind. On one wall our attention was drawn to a spectacular 1st Century mosaic that had been lifted from the floor of one of the many ancient buildings of Libya. It featured a wide range of very intricately crafted fish and sea-food; king prawns with every whisker and leg carefully recreated, cuttlefish almost throbbing on the wall, a wide variety of different fish and a rather evil-looking eel or two. To the other side of the room stood a tall stone tomb with an underground chamber for the body and a tall arch above, looking not unlike the Albert Memorial in London.
The next room contained two unexpected items - the first a VW Beetle that belonged to Colonel Gaddafi before he became the country's leader and the other a sand-buggy also used by him. Set amongst the ancient relics in the rest of the museum, these were a timely reminder of who's in charge in Libya.
~Follow Me Through a Libyan History~
After the Gaddafi Garage exhibits the museum then progresses chronologically through over 250,000 years of history. Our guide was dismissive of the Palaeolithic and Neolithic exhibits. In his slightly plummy old-school English, he appealed for our support. "Ladies and Gentlemen, I crave your indulgence for I despise the Stone Age and implore you to come with me instead to the Greco-Roman era". How could you say no?
And so we by-passed a big chunk of history to plunge in amongst the era for which Libya is arguably most famous. I hadn't done my homework or any pre-reading so I was a little out of my depth. I muddle my Greeks and Romans quite shamefully for someone who did quite well at Latin in school. Our guide began to extol the virtues of every single lump of marble in the hall. Not just a little, but in great detail. My mind started to wander. I tried; I really tried, but there comes a time when I the "It's my holiday, I'm not on a school trip" rebellion kicks in and I have to wander off. I had a good excuse with my ears so blocked from a bad cold that I could barely hear what he was saying.
I mused on the irony of a room full of naked statues in a country where the hotel swimming pools are open to men and women on different days.
~Friends Romans Countrymen - Lend me your Ears~
A camera's a good excuse to run away so I used it to the full. However, not everything passed over my head and quite a few things I'd need to know later in the week sunk into my resistant brain. I learned some of the typical characters we'd see in the sites as we travelled around the country; the Three Graces, Persephone seen with and without a face depending on whether she was in the underworld or the world above, Athena with her owl, and many and varied emperors, gods and characters from mythology.
~Forbidden History~
There were several large school groups going round the museum, laughing, joking and pretty much ignoring the exhibits. Our guide explained his sadness at their indifference, telling us that none of this history is taught in Libyan schools. He dropped his voice, looking over his shoulder and saying "We are not free to speak of these things". This was something that happened often during our tour - people looking over their shoulders and dropping their voices before speaking disrespectfully about the regime.
~Everything That Wasn't Greco-Roman~
Finally as we finished the Greco-Roman rooms we were released into the early Christian times of the Byzantine Empire and our guide was happy to let us go. After the joys of Byzantium, the Islamic era followed and eventually the museum brought us up to present times. With rooms laid out to show how different tribes live in Libya, it was clear that Gaddafi's love of the village and nomadic life shone through in the influences of the museum. The man who tried to pitch a tent in Central Park when visiting the United Nations abhors the city living ideal and thinks everyone should go back to more natural nomadic ways of life.
Once our allotted time for independent wandering about was over, we met back in the room with Gaddafi's cars and then headed back to the book shop where my husband and I picked up a couple of sheets of stamps. We have a bit of a weakness of political philately and bought two rather garish sheets commemorating 'American Aggression' for 12 dinars (£6 approx). They've been framed since we got home and are hanging in the downstairs toilet along with similar anti-American stamps from Iran. It's always good to have something to think about on the loo!
~In Summary~
I think I'm probably spoiled by having access to the British Museum where items of this quality aren't so rare as they might be elsewhere. Undoubtedly if Greco-Roman history is your thing, the exhibits in this museum are some of the best you'll find and in a country that's filled with well preserved sites of that era, the best is obviously going to be something special. If you're not so well versed in the subject, it's a good place for a quick introduction but try not to get lumbered with an 'expert' guide who wants to tell you EVERYTHING about every statue in the room.
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Egyptian Museum (Cairo, Egypt)
by garymarsh6
The Egyptian Museum Cairo.
We visited the Museum in Cairo one afternoon and in fact you could probably spend not only a couple of days here a lifetime would not be long enough as there is so much to see. The museum is housed in a building of great halls built by the French in 1908. In total there are 107 halls and it ... would be impossible to see all of the items in a couple of hours. There is a special exhibition of the mummies in a side hall for which there is a separate charge of 40 L on top of the 20L for normal entry. Normal opening times are between 09:00 and 19:00 but you should check locally for opening times. There are souvenir shops, toilets, a library, tourist police office, information desk, a cafeteria and a post office inside the museum. It is also handy to know that there is always an ambulance on standby situated in the grounds of the museum. The jewellery and Tutankhamen's treasures are on the upper floor of the museum.
The halls are absolutely massive and the security is quite tight here obviously because of the vast collection of priceless treasures and also because of the threat to tourists. Before you enter the Museum you have to go through a scanner to make sure you are not armed or carrying something you should not be carrying. All bags have to go through an x-ray machine and finally random searches are undertaken. It is forbidden to take photos in the museum.
They are currently building a long awaited new museum on the outskirts of Cairo to house the exhibition but it is taking a long time to build quite near to the Pyramids. The congestion in Cairo is unbelievable so that would be quite a blessing when it is completed as it is near the ring road.
My main reason for visiting the museum was to see the Tutankhamen's exhibition. In 1972 when I was a child I remember that an exhibition was brought to London and staged in the British Museum there were lots of photos in the papers and so much publicity about it. I begged my father to take me to see it but alas it was not to be. The queues to enter the exhibition in London stretched for up to a mile each day and in total there were nearly 1.8 million visitors to the exhibition which was opened by the Queen to mark the 50th anniversary of its discovery by Howard Carter. The thing that was of main interest was the funerary mask made of solid gold which most people would recognise belonging to Tutankhamen.
The museum is absolutely vast and contains over 120,000 artefacts some of which are in storage. It is divided into various halls according to which period of history the artefacts come from. So without talking about the rest of the contents of the museum I will tell you about the Tutankhamen display.
We went up to the first floor passing loads of coffins on the way to the great hall where all the King Tutankhamen items were. It is astonishing to see that the hall goes on for ever or so it seems with all the items he was buried with including things that he used during his short life.
There are cases on either side of the room and cases down the middle of the great hall displaying chairs, beds, statues, jewellery, armoury, clothing, shoes, pots bowls, plates, vases, cups, coins and other ornaments. The list is endless.
The displays here are absolutely stunning with lots of gold and other precious metals and stones. Precious woods all highly decorated and painted in gold and other beautiful colours. There were also canopic jars holding the internal organs which were buried separately to the body and only the heart being placed back inside the body. The brain, kidneys liver lungs and bowels were all put in jars and then in chests after being preserved.
It is amazing to see these small items, they are so beautiful. Over 3200 items were found in total and bearing in mind he died suddenly and at such a young age its amazing how much was put into the tomb. They estimate that the tomb was robbed on two occasions before Carters discovery so there would have been a lot more booty! You can imagine how much stuff must have been present in the tombs of Kings who had lived to a right old age and most of it taken by grave robbers.
What is even more amazing is when you get to the end of the corridor and the massive displays await you. There are massive beds, chariots, the funerary bed, stools, chairs his throne and boxes. All of them highly decorated in gold and other bright colours.
The sarcophagus was inside a set of three gold boxes engraved with lovely designs and funerary passages engraved in them just like the little Russian dolls one fitting neatly inside the other until you reach the outer ornate sarcophagus. The inside sarcophagus is made of solid gold and is beautifully painted with his arms folded holding the insignia of office Inside this would be the boy Kings Body wearing the mask. When carter discovered this they tried to find out why he died they dismembered the limbs, cut the torso in half and as the funeral mask was cemented onto his head they ended up decapitating him.
The sarcophagus and mask takes centre stage in the side room along with all his fine jewellery, rings, earrings and amulets. The mask is in a display case on its own and lit up for all to see in the middle of the room. It looks absolutely magnificent although from the pictures I have seen I would have thought it would have been much bigger, in fact it is fairly small.
The funeral mask was made of solid gold and weighs in at an incredible 24.5 lbs. and is inlaid with precious glass and semi precious stones lapis lazuli. On the front at the top of the mask is a cobra and a Falcon. The eye markings are really defined and lovely looking.
I have certainly realised one of my life long dreams of seeing both the Great Pyramids and the items from Tutankhamen and had I not seen another thing in Egypt I would have been entirely satisfied with these.
I would highly recommend anyone to visit here to marvel at how clever the ancient Egyptian craftsmen must have been producing fine jewellery with fine precision and intricacy with primitive tools.
My one big criticism of this great museum is that with today's technology and the amount of Students of Egyptology and employees' working in the museum, the cataloguing of the exhibits is absolutely dreadful. The small typed cards have not been updated from about the 1930's or so it appears. They have been typed using an old typewriter. I would really have thought they would be on the ball about this. It seems to me that that although they have this wealth of rare valuable historic items they do not seem to take as much care as I would have liked to see. They are irreplaceable and a fine example of mans abilities and skills to produce something of such beauty.
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Egyptian Museum (Cairo, Egypt)
by Neenawneenaw
The Egyptian Museum is located in the heart of downtown Cairo. As such, its surroundings are pretty polluted and traffic-ridden. Apparently this is having a seriously detrimental effect on the artifacts, so that a bigger modern museum better able to withstand the Cairo smog is apparently planned for the outskirts of Cairo near the ... pyramids - but don't hold your breath. I was told it would be at least 10 years and could be much longer.
It's a shame the museum is suffering so, because what's inside is truly spectactular. You could literally spend days in there without getting bored. Sadly I only had a couple of hours so I'm sure I just skimmed the highlights that every tourist sees, but what highlights!
Most spectacular are the contents of Tutankhamun's tomb - chariots, coffins within coffins, and rooms within rooms (4 of them like chinese dolls, but essentially huge crates made of gold!) Perhaps the truly astonishing thing is that Tut was a pretty minor pharaoh, dying too young to do much of note. He's so celebrated because his is the only pharaoh's tomb found intact, treasure and all - just imagine what must have been in Ramses the Great's burial chamber before it was nicked!
The museum holds a myriad of treasures from ancient Egypts Old, Middle and New Kingdom periods. A word of warning though: exhibits are in general poorly labelled with little or no explanation in any language, so a guide or a good book are essential to get the most from your trip.
Rather gruesome but intriguing is the mummy room (for which you need to pay extra for a separate ticket inside the museum), housing mummies transported from the Valley of the Kings to be preserved in the national museum.
Other practical points: no cameras allowed inside the museum. If you have one on you you'll have to queue to deposit it in a kiosk for the duration (unless like me you have a guide who can get around the bag search - it's not what you know it's who you know) so I was free to hold onto my camera as long as I didn't take it out of my bag!
Also, some of the more popular exhibits are constantly surrounded by big tour groups getting the spiel from their guide so it can be difficult to get a look in -but why not go for some lesser-known gems instead - there's no shortage!
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