A picture of the Nile River.
A beautiful picture of a rowboat on the Nile River.
Here is a tree that is growing in the middle of a road in the neighborhood of Zamalek, a part of Cairo.
Here is some street graffiti!
Here are some pictures of some sheep tails. The El Eid holiday was on Saturday. As I walked around the neighborhood most things were cleaned up, but I did get a picture of this sheep tail. I also found sheep hooves, sheep legs and sheep guts in bags on the street. It was sort of gross and I had to be careful walking around. Later in the evening my friends and I were walking home after our boat ride and there were puddles of blood that smelled horrible. I was ready to gag when I smelled it. Most places though were cleaned up rather quickly.
El Eid honors the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his promised son, Ishmael, as an act of submission to God's command, before God then intervened to provide Abraham with a lamb to sacrifice instead. The meat from the sacrificed animal is preferred to be divided into three parts. The family retains one third of the share; another third is given to relatives, friends and neighbors; and the remaining third is given to the poor and needy. source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_al-Adha
On Saturday a couple of us went to dinner at a restaurant that was on the bank on the Nile River. After dinner we went on a boat ride on the Nile River. It was quite a great boat ride.
The first picture is of Luke and Semran.
Semran and Brian.
Steph and her son Luke.
Brian, Semran, and Tony having a nice time.
Steph and Luke.
One of the many embasies on the Nile River.
Below, a cool door on an apartment building.
Here are a few picture of Cairo Tower.
On Tuesday I decided to walk to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. I walked from my apartment and over the bridge to downtown Cairo. I had to cross a busy road to get to the road where the museum was. There was barbed wire across the road and some army tanks. I had to walk on the side of the tanks. The picture below is after I had passed the tanks. The tanks were to the side when I left the museum and traffic was driving on the road again. Over the El Eid holiday security was super high because of threats of attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups. Yes, in Egypt it is not out of the ordinary to walk by military tanks and barbed wire in the street.
Below is a picture of the street empty of traffic as I walked to the entrance of the museum.
Outside the museum there were many Ancient Egyptian statues!
Inside the museum I got a few photographs before I was informed that there were no photographs allowed in the museum, oops....
The museum had so many things! There wasn't a room with one painted sarcophagus in it, there was over 30 of them! There was so many things in the museum that at times it was a little overwhelming. The items in the museum are not very well cataloged and not also very well labeled at times.
There was a seperate room in the museum that you could enter to see King Tut and his face mask and two of his sarcophases.
The cost for the museum was 75 Egyptian Pounds, about $11 US dollars.
There was a seperate room with many preserved mummies. That room cost an additional 100 Egyptian Pounds, about $15 US dollars. There were many mummies in the room. Ramses II was one of the mummies, but I don't remember the other ones.
I realized halfway through my tour that I was being followed in the museum. There was a man in an orange shirt that kept being where I was. I would go to a room and then the guy would be there. I would go to the bathroom, the guy would go to the bathroom. Wherever I went the guy would go. He'd go slowly, but eventually he would be near me. I went to look at the mummies, while the guy stood outside the entrance. As I was leaving the mummy exhibit orange shirt guy was coming in. Well, 3 minutes late in the mummified animal room orange shirt guy was theree. I went to exit the museum and it was the entrance, so the guard gave me directions to the exit. Orange shirt guy was with me still. He walked into a side room so I stepped into another room to shake him off my trail. As I pretended to look at exhibits a security guard peeked in and I left shortly. After some thinking I think orange shirt guy was undercover security.
I have a few suggestions as an outsider going through the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. I think that they should spruce up the King Tut exhibit and charge extra for that exhibit as opposed to charging more for the mummies. Also, I would suggest that museum loan many of their artwork to other musuems around the world for money in order to make their museum more streamlined and less cluttered. I say that the musuem should just loan the ancient artifacts so they always belong to the people of Egypt. I think if the museum would partner with the Metropolitan Museum of Art or another worldclass museum they could make their exhibits more interactive and informative. Actually, all of the museums I went to in South Korea were worldclass. A partnership with South Korea would benefit Egypt greatly.
Also, I think they should reopen the museum store.
Here are some pictures that I took while on the bus going to and from work.
The buildings you see on the side of the road are not permited buildings. They were built illegally and there many of them. They spread out forever. The roads are in pretty good condition. It doesn't get super cold in Egypt so there are no potholes to worry about. Most Egyptians do not wear seatbelts in the car or in any vehicles.
Here are some pictures of alley cats that I took over the last few weeks. Here is a picture of a momma cat and her kitten.
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