By Lakshmi:

Who?  Anyone visiting Cairo and interested in talking a walk down history with an amazingly rich trove of finds from antiquity.

What? The Egyptian Museum located at Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo.

How? You can take a taxi or bus or join a tour group to visit this museum.  The museum is open from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm daily, except during the month of Ramadan when it closes at 5:00 pm.  Entrance to the museum costs 60 Egyptian pounds (students enter all attractions at half price).  Tickets to the Mummies room is charged separately at 100 Egyptian pounds  and to us was a must do.  More details on then museum can be found here.

http://www.sca-egypt.org/eng/MUS_Egyptian_Museum.htm

Why?  The selling point that got us into the museum was to be able to see the finds from the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun.  But that is just one of approximately 160,000 objects covering 5,000 years of Egypt’s past that are housed in the 160 halls of this museum (a thousand objects per hall??).  The museum in a very simple, understated way welcomes you to what has become home to  one the largest collection of objects from antiquity.  From the carts used to ferry the mummies to the canopic jars used to preserve organs to the shrines and jewels in the tombs, each object and exhibit helped us bring this lost period in history to life.  We gazed on the statues of Nefertiti, Akhenaten and more, we examined scenes from the lives of Egyptian royalty engraved on hieroglyphic tablets, we were awestruck by the intricate carvings and paintings in jewelry and pottery and were speechless at the grandeur, pomp and riches that accompanied royalty to their afterlife.  We spent several hours at this museum and felt we could have done a whole lot more.  Regardless of how much time you chose to spend here, you will emerge enriched with one regret…not being able to absorb more.