The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities - Cairo Museum, Egypt

Hello everyone. I have always been fascinated by Ancient Egypt. It is a place where you can find a lot of old stories and mysteries. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo does not look very special at first. It looks like a building in the middle of a very crowded city. But the moment you cross the threshold, you enter a time loop. A space where history stands frozen between glass cases. The museum offically opened in 1902 by the decision of Egyptian authorities who wanted to collect all antiqities previously smuggled abroad in crates into a single location. The person who designed this building was Marcel Dourgnon, a man from France. The outside of the building looks old fashioned and classic. When you go inside it is like a big maze. And there are thousands of things to look at all, from different times like they are all staring at you.

More than 120000 artifacts are kept here and that is only the portion on display. It is said that there are tens of thousands more in the basements unidentified, unscanned and unexamined. Rumors suggest that some will never be shown tothe public. Because they are too inappropriate. This building houses Tutankhamun's golden mask, pharaoh mummies and artefacts from Saqqara, Abydos and the Valley of the Kings. But there are other things like objects without context, without equals and for which no explanation can be made.

The museum has been the subject of scandals many times. During the 2011 revolution looters broke in, display cases were smashed and more than 100 rare pieces vanished. Some have still not been found. Furthermore whispers circulate about a private storage area beneath the museum building wher objects of unknown origin are kept. A place inacessible even to staff, requiring a special list for entry. There are things there that supposedly should not exist or be known. Some claim the collection includes artifacts that do not fit the official chronology of Egypt or are far too complex for their era. Of course a simple sign is hung on such objects: Purpose unknown.

But we didn't come here for the signs. We came to look into the essence of these artifacts. We stood where others passed by. We examined what seemed insignificant. We went deep into the museum and began our investigation. The coolest artifacts in all of Cairo are here. All these sarcophagi were removed from tombs over time; they were taken from everywhere and the best were brought to Cairo. The hiroglyphs were definitely made using a percussion technique. They are very superficial drawings except for the bird and snake figures. Even those are only two mm deep. Everything else was essentially just scratched in; some aren't even visible in photos.

The next sarcophagus we visited is a dark stone, likely basalt. The quality of the hieroglyphs isn't bad, but they were definitely made with a percussion technique. There is no doubt. They aren't very deep and look quite ordinary. The workmanship of the face is roughly the same. It’s hardly possible to attribute this to ancient high civilizations because it was clearly smoothed out with the help of a chisel. The bulge on the side is also not quite natural; perhaps the character had a lump.

The next sarcophagus has deeper hieroglyphs and better quality, but it's still not the best. I saw a stele in Luxor that looked as if it were carved from granite,which is impossible but these here don't look like that, meaning they might have been hammered out. The birds on the adjacent sarcophagus caught my interest. Btw I think this is a later addition. Why? Because the hieroglyphs are different. The hieroglyph on the far right definitely does not belong to this script. It was made by another craftsman. The depth and size do not match. What could this tell us? Perhaps the sarcophagus were originally completely blank. As in other museums around the word someone from a certain historical period who knew how to hold a hammer and chisel wrote their name or signed everywhere to say I was here. There is a large, well crafted and polished sarcophagus with a smooth surface. But there is no text except for these few letters.

Prince Ptahshepses sarcophagus is also quite interesting. It is very well worked. It's clear the corners were likely polished by hand. Still it was made very meticulusly and is covered in patterns. I am almost certain it is basalt. The interior is sanded but not polished. It has a very interesting closing system: the lid was clearly slid in from the side and fixed there. It fit into thin channels and went in a meter. You can imagine how precise this must be. Even in our modern drawers, such precision is not used.

Two alabaster sarcophagi were found with ceramic jars. The jars are still here. This means the sarcophagi were not used solely for bodies and mummies. It clearly states here that they were found with these jars. Items were packed inside. Essentially they were used just as boxes. We continued examining the museum. I will include the rest of our trip in my next posts.

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