The Voyages of the Tears

Egyptian Museum Cairo Egypt

Egyptian Museum (Museum of Egyptian Antiquities) Cairo Egypt

egyptian museum ikon courtesy: egyptgiftshop.com

The essence of all under one roof

The word Egypt creates a mosaic of images in a reader’s mind consisting of the gigantic pyramids guarded by fearsome Sphinx; never ending sand dunes of the Sahara Desert, the great River Nile and numerous monuments standing on its banks bathed in the desert sun; etc all grand and impressive. When all these monuments get stored beneath one roof what can that place be called? Well we can call it The Egyptian Museum! Because it contains at least even a fragment from every monument found in Egypt . There may be no Pharaoh who had not left at least a trace of his belongings to this museum; whether it is Queen Hatshepsut, Akhenaton, Thutmose, Ramesses of any number; all are represented.

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A child of Ismail Pasha

Egyptian museum image courtesy: dignubia.org

The Egyptian Museum was established in 1835 by the initiative of Ismail Pasha; the architect of modern Cairo . At first it was opened with the collections received from Augusto Mariette a French archaeologist engaged by Ismail Pasha. Its first location was at Azbakia Gardens at the Center of Cairo . It was then moved to Bulaq a nearby place in 1858. Damages to the building due to flood in Nile necessitated a change and a building of its own came to being. The present museum built in 1902 was designed by a French architect Marcel Dournon. It is a huge neoclassic building built in 1902 and located in Midan el Thahrir, Cairo . It has two floors (ground floor and the upper floor).

Auguste Mariette

The idea of Egyptian Museum actually belongs to Auguste Mariette who could convince Ismail Pasha of the necessity of such a set up to protect the monuments from looting and vandalizing. Mariette was a French scholar/explorer

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