At breakfast, the happy news was that Tim and Jeff's bikes had been delivered to the hotel at 1 AM. Since they no longer had to go to the airport to check for their bikes, we decided to go downtown to Tahrir Square and also to the old Egyptian museum. The holdings in this museum boggle the mind, with innumerable priceless treasures harvested from the ancient pharaohs' tombs. The King Tut exhibit was still in residence, but there has been a gradual exodus of contents to the new Grand Egyptian museum, which has had its opening delayed for many years.
The British built the original Egyptian museum in 1901. It is the largest museum in Africa. Tahrir Square - site of the 2011 Arab Spring revolution - is in the foreground.
I am oddly entranced by Egyptian statuary depicting falcons. I like them better than jackals.
A giant fish that the ancient Egyptians chose to mummify.
Call to prayer inside the museum.
After the museum, we traveled to the Cairo Coptic Christian neighborhood.
St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church and interior.
On the way back to our hotel, we decided to stop by the new Grand Egyptian Museum, currently only open for lobby and atrium tours. None of the exhibit halls are open yet. Even so, they are charging $40 admission and we all decided to pass on that opportunity.
Tim practiced his Uber app skills for the three rides we needed today, and really delivered for us.
A glimpse of the new Grand Egyptian Museum lit up at night, which happened to be just across the highway from our hotel.
Of interest, I had thought the whole world wrote numbers like we do. The Egyptians use the eastern Arabic numbering system which is quite cryptic at first glance. It was a good mental exercise to decipher license plates, when our Uber drivers arrived to pick us up, or when trying to understand pricing in the marketplace.
Eastern Arabic numbering system.
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