This is a spectacular museum, housing a vast collection of artifacts, including much of what was found in Tuthankhamun’s tomb (solid gold sarcophagus, mummified chickens, the first known example of a folding camp bed, etc. etc. etc.) and several mummies, including Hatshepsut and Ramses I. Humongous statues are all over the main hall, including one of a pharoah and his queen that was so large, the museum was built around it. If you listen to This American Life or read the news a bit in-depth, you’ll know people were confined and tortured within the museum grounds. I was not sure how to feel about this, so I asked our guide. She said, yes, it is true, but she wasn’t sure where in the museum this happened. I had this guilty feeling walking around, appreciating canopic jars and jewelry and symbolic boats to the afterlife knowing the weight of many kinds of history rest within these walls.
