so much history, so little space
i love museums, and had really been looking forward to the egyptian antiquities museum in cairo. sadly whilst the artefacts were amazing, the lay out was shockingly poor. the museum has become a bit of a historical warehouse in which any new discoveries are unceremoniously dumped, with no real quality control or labelling. as such, wandering around it is confusing at best, and disappointing at worst.the tutankahmun exhibit is amazing, as is the mummification room. the rest of it only justifies a token glance. it really makes you think that more of the relics should be transferred back out to where they were originally found, to make a few genuine working tombs and temples: the pharaohs left behind so much stuff that much of it is not as priceless or unique as it's age would suggest. such relocation would improve not only the original sites, but also the museum itself.
after a chance meeting and coffee with the rather wonderful professor sharif, curator of animal mummies at the museum, we headed off to another of the bazaars before leaving its sweaty, sleazy environs for tea at the windsor. at ten pm we got on the train back to luxor.
so that was cairo: great history, shocking present. let's not pussyfoot around the islamic question any more, it is utilised as a mean, backwards, misogynistic religion in the majority of the parts of the world which it dominates. the sooner people stop being ashamed to realise that, for fear of it conflicting with their liberal consciousnesses, the sooner we can do something about it.
posted by bicrom @ 9:26 am
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