Day 15 - Saturday November 8, 2025 - Cairo tour day

We left the hotel at 9:15 after an hour meeting with our new tour director, Sam, for short because I can’t pronounce his full Egyptian name.

Our first stop was the OLD Egyptian museum of Cairo.  Tomorrow we see the NEW GEM museum that everyone is talking about.  

There are  over 120,000 antiquities and relics.  If you wanna see something, Egyptian, this is the place to see it.  

The museum shows off their two floors in chronological order. The oldest item is the first you see and then you come up in time. Below are some of the pictures I took in the museum.

This plaque is 5,933 years old.

Our guide was able to explain all of the small features on these plaques. He can also read hieroglyphics and was able to translate many of the symbols for us.

This is the inside of a tomb. They believed that they could paint the walls with things they would need in the afterlife such as food items, chickens, vegetables, beef, cattle. And if they painted the walls with these items they would come to life in the afterlife when the modified pharaoh moved into his new existence.

This statue of King Khafre dates to 4600 BC.  It was found in a temple. We’ll be seeing the temples over the course of the next several days.

These date to 2,480 BC

The first statue of its kind, it wasn’t one solid piece of stone. The arms are actually defined and cut away from the rest of the body.

This is the pharaoh Rahotep and his consort Nofret.  It has interest to archaeologists because of their differences. She is obviously white and he is not. In addition, it’s the first statue showing a mustache on a man.

It takes some looking to see that the man in the statue is a dwarf. His children are beneath him. And if you look closely, you can see see the boy versus the girl.

This was made out of alabaster and our guide was able to translate and read back to us all of the hieroglyphics on this tablet.

When they embalmed the pharaohs, they removed all of their organs and put them into these little sarcophagus which are shown on top of the jars, and then the sarcophagus were put into these jars. They went into the tomb with the pharaoh as well.

A sarcophagus with a mummy inside

This piece of papyrus is 70 feet long. It’s the second longest piece of papyrus with hieroglyphics on it. When we get to Luxor, we will see the longest piece.

An actual mummy

They even put a chariot into a pyramid or tomb

This is the actual papyrus plant that makes into papyrus or paper.

We left the museum and went to a restaurant for lunch. This was the first opportunity I had to see and taste Egyptian food. You have to give Wayne credit he will eat anything.  He tasted everything and then told me whether or not he thought I would like it.

These are a little out of order, but this is a dessert. Our guide called it a pudding. Wayne thought it was more like tapioca. I don’t eat fish eyes so I left it.

This is the main course. There was so much food. On the left is chicken and beef. You can see the french fries. There were carrots and zucchini and on the right hand side the rice and grape leaves wrapped around something I didn’t investigate. It was just way too much to eat.

Pictures of our waiters.

Wayne trying the pickled okra

A view of the restaurant. I’m not sure what all the flags were on the ceiling. Obviously decoration, but I don’t know if it’s celebrated something special or not.

This was one of the first courses, it was chicken soup with rice and was actually pretty darn good.

In the bowls from left to right tahini, spicy pickles that made Wayne cough, something that was maybe sweet potatoes or not, beets

The name of the restaurant on the place

The outside of the restaurant and its name in Arabic.

Our next stop, after lunch was the Muhammad Ali, Tasha mosque and fortress.  This leader of the country was revered, and this huge mosque was built by him and named for him. And yes, Muhammad Ali the boxer took his name from this Egyptian ruler.

We either had to take our shoes off or buy these little plastic booties for 10 Egyptian pounds each. A one dollar bill is approximately 50 Egyptian pounds. I gave him a dollar because I didn’t have any Egyptian money yet he gave me two sets for myself and Wayne And gave me 20 Egyptian pounds change. I know I got ripped, but at least I got some money back. Our guide told us to wait and hold out our hand for change. That’s what he’s stuck in my hand.  They even help you put the booties on for the same 10 Egyptian pounds.

The outside of the Fortress and mosque as we were driving towards it

Wayne started waving at these people, who are all jammed up elbow elbow, and they were smiling and waving back to us

Our little blue booties.

This is the voodoo or anblution area.  Anyone going to prey in the mask is expected to wash their hands up to their elbows, their feet up to their knees and their face before entering for prayer

The minarets on top of the mosque.

Pictures of the inside of the mosque. They just got electric electricity in there a few years ago.

It truly is beautiful inside

Wayne and I had the front seat in the bus behind the driver. We’ve got to take some great pictures of the traffic. Keep your eye on the motorcycle in each of these pictures and see how every car is weaving in and out. Never leave any space. Fill every single space there is.

Motorcycle came out of nowhere from the right of the red truck.

No, he’s in front of it and then the next picture he’s moved up a couple of car lines. There is no such thing as white lines on these roads that anyone pays attention to.

Summoning up today. Noise. That’s what I’ll take away for most. There are so many people,, the city has 20 million people. The people noise, the car noise, it was just cacophony of sound all day long.  The people seem really nice, and they all want you to like them. I don’t think it was phony. Our tour guide today has been great. He is so helpful and wants everybody to love his country. I thought it was a city girl until I saw Cairo.

I’m told on Monday when we fly to Aswan that it will be entirely different. It will be quiet and nowhere near the kind of noise that we have here in Cairo.

Tomorrow we shut off early, at 7 AM, on the bus, to see the pyramids here in Cairo as well as the sphinx. And then onto the GEM, The grand Egyptian museum. It just opened in November but then closed for some time and we are told it holds more artifacts in the museum we were in today.

Tonight dinner is at 6:30 on a boat sailing down the Nile. It should be lovely to see all the lights as we take our dinner cruise. More on what was for dinner, tomorrow.