The Great Egyptian Museum is a Real GEM~!
A Fantastic Finish to a Brilliant Trip
We began our day yesterday aboard our Viking Ship Osiris at Luxor. As we finished packing the Brilliant Wife called out:
“The balloons are going up!”
Looking out through the dusty dawn across the Nile from our beautiful room we counted forty of the big balloons ascending in the hazy early morning light. Was it only a week ago that I had gone Up Up and Away in my Egyptian Balloon, making that same ascent, floating up near the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, drifting towards the Valley of the Kings?
We and our shipmates soon departed the Osiris, boarded our PAS jet, and by noon had landed back in Chaotic Cairo where this brilliant trip began on New Year’s Day. (See Happy New Year from Cairo.)
Viking gave us rooms at the 5-star Intercontinental near the Cairo airport where we enjoyed a nice buffet lunch. (Some of our shipmates reported that the attached mall is a Retail Temple of note, dwarfing most if not all malls stateside.)
Our flight to Detroit via Paris wasn’t set to depart until after midnight so we had some time. We boarded our bus with another of the Brilliant Egyptologist guides that Viking provides and headed over the Nile to Giza for a two hour tour of the newly opened Great Egyptian Museum. It really wasn’t chaotic at all on this Saturday afternoon.
An obelisk of Ramses II mounted on an open stand marked the path to the entryway, just as obelisks mark the entrance to the Temples of Luxor and Karnak (I’m still working on that final post! It’s coming, I promise!)
Ramses II was quite a guy. He portrayed himself as a god at the Temples of Abu Simbel, probably my favorite of all the incredible sites we’ve seen.
But why would the architects choose to exhibit his obelisk like this?
The raised open exhibition stand reveals that Ramses II had his name carved on the bottom of the stele! Now that’s an ego!
The breathtaking exterior design echoes and amplifies the Giza Pyramids. A wave of emotion swept through me as we walked up to the entrance with the Pyramids from the Old Kingdom shimmering in the distance to our left.
I had the feeling we were entering another Great Pyramid. But this one had NOT been stripped of its capstone of solid gold and limestone sheathing. Nor had it been raided by treasure seekers. All the riches of thousands of years of history were still intact, preserved, catalogued, and open for inspection!
The pyramid at the entranceway has been tipped up, as if permitting us to sneak inside. It is supported by black granite shafts, carved with the various names for Egypt, including Kemet, Black Land, named so because of the rich black silt that regularly fertilized the land during the annual floods, contrasting with the brown of the Saharan sands.
We entered the pyramid. We entered Egypt.
Ramses II welcomed us into Egypt’s Treasure House.
The opening photo shows this same statue of Ramses II from the back, looking towards the entranceway. The gold cap echoes that which formerly topped the Great Pyramid and frames the entryway.
The museum has four levels that rise like a pyramid, ever higher, organized chronologically, with the oldest at the bottom and the newest at the top. Each level is divided into three sections left to right: Society, Kingship, and Beliefs.
The Society section shows the ordinary people. These are the scribes (shown above, although scribes were really quite extraordinary), fishers, farmers, weavers, soldiers, and their coffins, mummies and artifacts.
The center section of each level depicts the royalty of the era.
Above: Queen Hatshepsut making an offering to the gods.
The right section, as you ascend, depicts the gods of the era.
Above, left to right: God Ptah, King Ramses II, Goddess Sekhmet.
It is a brilliant organizational plan. A monumental staircase runs up the middle, as well as a moving escalator ramp to its right, angled and smooth like a pyramid. The escalator has exits at each of the levels, permitting you to explore further.
The largest pieces are in the heart of the hall near the ramps, serving as markers to anchor you in time and place.
The top level has a huge window that reveals a breathtaking view of the Pyramids of Giza.
Next to the ascending escalator ramp is the exit ramp. Visitors leave the Museum by the same path they entered, back down through the heart of the museum, providing a stunning recapitulation of your visit.
Our Viking Egyptologist Guide, Manal, suggested that it was better to put this museum at the end of a trip to Egypt. I agree. It was so much better to have first experienced all the incredible sites in Egypt and then put them in context by ending your trip with this museum.
It has taken 20 years for GEM to be opened, at a reported cost of $1 Billion U.S. And it’s still not finished. When completed the King Tutankhamen exhibit will most likely be the big draw, along with various other temporary exhibits.
Yet there are three foundational pieces that need to be here:
The Rosetta Stone (British Museum)
Queen Nefertiti (Egyptian Museum of Berlin)
Dendera Zodiac (Louvre)
These three should be returned to their home, here in Giza, in this new Great Pyramid. This is where they belong, under the gaze of the old pyramids and the protection of the new.
The brilliant design, execution, and operation of the GEM shows that the Egyptian people understand the value of their past and its importance to the Human Race.
The story told here is not just the story of Egypt. It is the story of all of us who live on and share this Planet Earth.
We
Tilled the Soil
Brewed beer from Barley
Baked Bread from Wheat and fed
Those who made nets and spears and fished the Nile
We
Wove garments
Of flax made Paper from Papyrus
Made Music and jewelry of gold and silver,
Crafted tools and weapons of bronze, wrote a language,
We
Created
Gods and Pharaohs who
Ruled us, caught crocodiles built chariots
Led and marched in Armies to preserve and conquer.
We
Were here.
Preserving, Protecting,
Learning and Sharing. Marching
Hand in hand through History. Here we remain.
This was the trip of a lifetime for us. I am grateful to the Brilliant Wife for her strength and curiosity that powered us through, to Viking, to our Brilliant Guide Randa and her fellow Egyptologists, the Officers, Staff and Crew of the Osiris, and to our Brilliant Fellow Passengers, with whom we had such fun and made such wonderful friendships~!
Above: Our Brilliant Steward Moamed.
Finally a heartfelt thanks to you dear readers, for traveling along and spurring me to capture and share the trip in words and photos. I hope you have enjoyed the journey.
Links to earlier posts on Egypt not mentioned above:
The GEM should be elevated to some modern version of a “Wonder of the World”.
Incredible! Perfect end to the trip!! So enjoyed following along every day! Thanks! 📸