A DATE WITH SLEEPING PHARAOHS.- (PART-2 of 5)

A DATE WITH SLEEPING PHARAOHS..

Next day we went around other important historical attraction in the Cairo City. The most notable of them all was the Cairo Museum which houses the largest variety of historical artifacts anywhere in the world pertaining to Egypt’s past. Even a full day visit here will not do justice to your historical curiosity. The two great attractions here are the Tutankhamen Section and the Royal Mummy Gallery. The Tutankhamen section was the most crowded one that day. It had been created with the numerous artifacts retrieved from the tomb of Tutankhamen which was discovered by the British Egyptologist Howard Carter in 1922 . The tomb itself was buried in a desert near southern city of Luxor called the Valley of Kings where the later Pharoahs were entombed . The discovery of Tut’s tomb is one of the most sensational archaeological discoveries of all time. On that fateful day, Howard Carter remarked that it was, "the day of days, the most wonderful that I have ever lived through, and certainly one whose like I can never hope to see again". There is probably no more famous group of artifacts in the world then those associated with the discovery of young King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Here you can see practically everything the king would have needed in his afterlife –Gold necklaces, Pendants, Amultes, rings, bracelets and the sacred Solar Beetle. Tutankhamen’s tomb contained four gilded shrines nested one inside the other. All four of these shrines are on display in the museum. They were lined up in order of decreasing size -the innermost being made of 110 kilograms of solid gold. Here we saw the famous gilded mask that has come to be the most enduring symbol of Egypt in the minds of people outside. In recent past, many artifacts of the Tutankhamen collection have traveled around the world on request from other countries and setting largest attendance records in many museums.
Just when it appeared that we have seen the mother of all museums, our guide told us to have a look at the Royal Mummy’s gallery. It would cost an additional 100 Egyptian pounds. Many of our fellow tourists were not interested. Why pay so much money to see some more dead bodies? I took the guide’s advice and headed for it. When I entered into the hall, I realized that even a thousand pound would not have been worth what was on offer. After all, this is the final resting place for some of the greatest pharaohs of ancient Egypt and indeed of the whole world ! Here I saw the mummy of Ramsess-The great (1272BC-1213BC), the mightiest of all Egyptian Pharoah who ruled Egypt 3000 years ago with his 200 wives, 96 sons and 60 daughters. He was the tallest and longest living pharaoh and believed to have died at the age of 99 years (the average life expectancy at that time was less than 40 , so most of Ramese’s sons died in his lifetime) . It was an eerie feeling to see the body of this great monarch of a vast kingdom, lying inside a small glass container in front of the prying eyes of his ordinary subjects. This very mummy, 3500 years ago, in flesh and blood, must have commanded thousands of soldiers and launched countless military expeditions from the foot of the great sphinx. .But it was even eerier to realize that when Ramese was leading his expeditions , the pyramid and sphinx, built by his forefathers, were already 1000 years old! Such is the antiquity of Egypt; such is its historical depth.

Rameses the Great’s mummy with a height of 1.7 mtrs (, and is a little below the average height for an ancient Egyptian) features a hooked nose and strong jaw. In 1974, Egyptologists visiting his tomb noticed that the mummy's condition was rapidly deteriorating. They decided to fly Ramesses II's mummy to Paris for examination. Ramesses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as "King (deceased)". The mummy was received at Le Bourget airport, just outside Paris, with the full military honours befitting a king. In Paris, Ramesses' mummy was diagnosed and treated for a fungal infection. During the examination, scientific analysis revealed battle wounds and old fractures, as well as the pharaoh's arthritis and poor circulation. Ironically, CT scans taken on the mummy shows that this mighty monarch died from a toothache gone bad!
Vie of Nile from the CruiseAfter Cairo museum, we were taken around other places of tourist interests – The Sal-din-citadel, the Muhammad Ali (The .Muslim king who founded the City of Cairo in 959 AD) Mosque, Hanging Church etc.Everywhere the smell of a distant exotic past wafted in the air.
The lunch was in the Hardrock restaurant of Hyatt Regency Hotel, on the banks of Nile. The dinner was on a floating hotel right on midstream Nile. Our guide told that these floating hotels were becoming very popular in Cairo in recent times . They are quite expensive too. The buffet dinner was quite sumptuous . From its windows we could see the lights from other ships making shifting patterns on the water as the historic Nile quietly flowed beneath us.

To be continued further ..