Day 22 - Friday, April 26 - Egypt Cairo Museum

Most important for today is the Cairo Museum. Everything in this museum is original, they have no copies. 

What hit us was the large amount of objects related to calf worship, which was so similar to what we had seen on Day 17 on April 21. We were told that for the Egyptians the bull or calf had two meanings: to have wisdom and to be a messenger. And the comparison was made that after generations of living with this kind of god-worship and the "disappearance" of Moses, they needed wisdom to guide them onward and a new messenger in place of Moses. Hence the golden calf, and not a golden bird, or serpent, or other animals that were also worshiped. 

Also interesting is the granite stele of Merenptah, dated 1213-1203 B.C. Merenptah here declares that he had defeated Ashkelon, Gezer, Yanoam and Israel, among others, so the Israelites are mentioned here as a people, which shows that in the time before the kings of Israel, i.e. in the time of the Judges, they were already living as a people in the land of Israel. 

And of course all kinds of splendor from the Pharaohs and others. 

Furthermore, today we walked through the about a thousand-year-old city of Cairo, with mostly stores for tourists. 

And a relaxing boat ride on a Felluca, which is an Egyptian sailboat. 

Videos: 
(1) Three statues in the Cairo Museum. The left one is of a Pharaoh, for has a crown on it, but made after his death, for it is smooth, without clothing. The crown is single, so only of "upper Egypt". The second is made during his life, and has a double crown on it, so he ruled both upper and lower Egypt. The third is not a Pharaoh, because he has no crown on it. (2) Chariot, this is the Ferrari or Tank of the time. (3) Do you like shopping, or "looking but not buying"? This is by far the longest video on this website, over 8 minutes. (4) Felluca boat on the Nile. 

Photos: 
(1) A small part of the Cairo Museum. (2) 2 Pharaohs. (3) This is Pharaoh Djoser, we'll hear more about him tomorrow in Saqqara. (4-6) Calves and bulls, idols, great resemblance to the petroglyphs we saw on Day 17 on April 21. (7) The granite stele of Merenptah, with "Israel" in hieroglyphs about center second line from bottom. (8) "Happy Nice Times" on the boat (9) You see this in Ecuador, too.