Cairo Museum

Entry chamber, Ancient Egyptian Museum of Cairo

I remember being so excited to visit the Cairo museum. I'd point out the window and gleefully squeal every time my class bus passed it on the freeway, and when the day finally came to go, I could hardly wait to get inside the gate.

What I expected was the typical museum: dim lighting to protect the artifacts, climatically controlled air quality, and information plaques that tell you what everything is. You know, typical museum stuff.

What it really had to offer was the largest warehouse of ancient junk in the world. Sweet-awesome, valuable junk, but still. Nothing was organized, categorized, explained, or labeled, but rather was all thrown together like a ton of random boardgame tokens. And on top of it all, fluorescent lights through the whole place, 100% humidity, 94 degree temps. (Seriously, I fear for the the papyri. They're built for desert climates, not hot moist museums.)

There was a really cool mummified crocodile though! Note the dust on top of its case--gross.