Friday, January 8, 2010. Cairo

I spent a good part of yesterday at the Egyptian Museum (again). You could describe the place in term that would be meaningful to an architect, or to a museologist, but this seems folly. The Egyptian Museum is a place which evokes so many feelings and sensations that any sort of objective description would simply miss the point of going there. Think back to a childhood visit to your grandparent's house. Remember the way it smelled, the way there was always something going on (even if you were just an observer). The inflection of voices, now passed from this world, just memory.

Now you're ready to hear my description.

The sun is hot and bright outside. Going inside is like passing into the cool of a sea-side cave.

Every sound echos: footfalls, a chair scraping against the hard floor tiles, tour groups – the leader speaking English, French, Italian; a mildly attentive crowd looking vaguely in the same direction, and always some young smart-ass making a joke about what he thinks some ancient hieroglyphs really say.

Sunlight streams in from a cupola high over the rotunda . Beams of light move slowly around the coffin gallery as the day wears on, giving one coffin a taste of day for a few minutes before moving on to another.

Sometimes there is so little light you can barely see what you're looking at. There is glancing light from a window at the end of the hall, but it's not enough to read the glyphs on a the stone before you. Instead it makes the block look wet. There is no information label.

There is an information label. But for something else.

There is an information label. But after all this, do you believe it?

Leaving the museum is like opening an oven door to check on a pan of baking, only brighter. Much brighter.

Why do guards smoke underneath no-smoking signs? Why are people touching the statues? Why do they get their pictures taken with them? Why are all those people huddled together in the garden near the museum entrance? What are they waiting for? What will any of these people remember of this day when they get back home?

Post Script: Cool things noted this time:

1.A coffin with a purple background. You never see that.

2.A white limestone statue of a man and his wife, maybe 50 cm tall. The man is seated while his wife stands. She is taller than he is. You never see that either.

3.A pair of Old Kingdom terracotta lion-headed deities, each about 70 cm tall. The lower jaw of one statue is slightly damaged, revealing teeth behind its closed muzzle. If it had not been broken, you would ever know they were there.

4.At the back of one of Tutankhamun's really big shrines, you could see a depiction of a heavenly cow with people suckling from its udder. With all the sunshine outside, enough seeps into the museum so you can make this out.

5.Visiting Amenhotep I in the royal mummy room. His mummy is still wrapped, but has glass (or stone) eyes on the wrappings. He is covered with garlands of flower petals that remind me uncomfortably of razor wire.

6.First visit to the other royal mummy room. It's located at the end of the coffin wing, and is currently home to Ramesses IV, V, and VI plus some high ranking women.