Our hotel was across the street from The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities which was built in 1902. It has more than 120,000 pieces of amazing Egyptian treasures. We had Yasir, our tour guide to show us many of the most amazing artifacts.
This is the Rosetta Stone which contains 3 different kinds of ancient languages.
The Rosetta Stone was carved in 196 B.C.. The Rosetta Stone was found by French soldiers who were rebuilding a fort in Egypt. It is how we are able to understand and read ancient hieroglyphics and writings.
To think that all of these pieces of art and statues were found inside tombs, pyramids and buildings more than 4,000 years ago is just amazing.
This is a mummified dog!
The most amazing display at the museum was King Tut's Tomb! WOW! The reason why King Tut's possessions are even here is because his tomb looked like a commoners tomb so grave robbers did not even try to get into his tomb. This picture on top is his gold throne.
King Tut was only the King for 9 years until he was killed in battle.
This is the exterior of King Tut's tomb. Inside this large box are 3 other boxes that contained all of his worldly possessions. There was a room where we couldn't take pictures but it was all of the GOLD they found inside his tomb as well as his gold death mask! I saw a guard yell at someone who took a picture so I didn't even try, but here is one I found online. Crazy to think how much that thing is worth!
This is the outside of the Museum. They are actually building a new museum that is triple the size of this museum since there is just so many antiquities.
We then went to the Citadel. It was built in the 12th century to fortify Cairo against the Crusaders. The Citadel was used as the seat of the King and his government in Egypt for many centuries and many dynasties including the Great Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha which stands at the highest point inside the courtyard of the Citadel. It is a beautiful landmark in Cairo with its huge space, beautiful decorations and remarkable domes and minarets.
While sitting inside this mosque and learning about the Muslim religion, a lot of kids came up to take pictures with Regan and I. I thought it was so funny.
Hearing the call to prayer while in the mosque was beautiful.
The views of Cairo were amazing! It was a clear day so you can see the pyramids in the background.
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