A Museum, a Market and a View

Last you heard from me, we were still in Egypt! Yes, we did eventually and reluctantly leave that amazing country. However, we had a memorable last day in the city of Cairo. Our first stop on our last full day was the Egyptian Museum. It certainly rivals any museum I have seen anywhere in the world. You can imagine...and you will have to only imagine, since we could take no photos inside. We spent lots of time in the King Tut exhibition. There we viewed the many items that were found inside of the young royal's tomb. And, many items there were. The tomb looked like my junk room at home! Pictures showed that items that took many rooms in the museum to display were all crammed in to his small burial chamber. We also viewed royal mummies and dozens of statues and artifacts, all from up to 3000 years ago. It was a facinating view of the ancient Egyptian world.

A treat after the museum was our trip to the famous Khan El Khalili Market in Cairo. What an adventure! Our tour guide's last words to us were, "Don't make too many turns...you can get lost in there!" Since Keith and Sam had decided that they were going to start a "tower collection" (we have statutes of the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben), we were on the hunt for an obelisk replica. There were any number of shops we could enter to make our purchase. We finally stepped into one shop and took the narrow, winding staircase to the second floor. I have never seen so many statues in my life! After much bartering and almost bickering (that's the way it's done in Egypt), we purchased three obelisks, one to display in our collection and two to gift to Will and Jake.

Whew...it just about wore us out! There was so much to see and, of course, I could not stop taking pictures. The shops, the architecture, the people...I was, for the one thousandth time in a week, mesmorized.

One last stop: a perfume factory. Really, the perfumes in Egypt are not like what we might purchase at the cosmetic counter at Foley's. They are much purer and made from simpler ingredients. As the expert told us, what they sell in their shop is the base for many of the familiar famous perfumes we would purchase at Foley's. I chose a bottle of Jasmine, the base for what we know as White Linen. The perfume was a bit expensive, but watching Keith and Sam sample perfumes on their wrists was priceless!

We filed past the parked camels in the street in front of the perfume factory, into our van and back to the hotel. After saying goodbye to Fady, our tour guide and new friend, we decided to check out the rooftop cafe adjacent to the Movenpick. And we are so glad that we did! It was the perfect way to spend our last evening in Cairo. Words cannot describe our time overlooking the pyramids...see for yourself.

It was a precious time, this magical week that Keith, Sam and I spent in the country of Egypt. We were all changed a little bit, I think. How can you experience the beauty of the mighty Nile, the majesty of the ancient temples and pyramids, the wonder of the Egyptian people and not be a little more appreciative of God's creativity? We were, and continue to be, blessed by the diversity of this big world.