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The Egyptian Museum at
Cairo: Suggested Itinerary
While in Egypt

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The Egyptian Museum is the most
wondrous collection of Egyptian Artifacts in the World.
It might not have been that way, except for a change in
policy.
When
Egyptian culture became interesting to the outside world,
the first explorers took their finds outside Egypt. As a
result there are interesting Egyptology collections all
over the world. This is not a bad thing, as these
exhibits keep the rest of the world interested in Egypt.
However, this trade in antiquities was eventually stopped
and a huge collection of artifacts was gathered in Cairo
and housed at the Egyptian Museum.
There is another
excellent, but much smaller, museum at Luxor.
You should spend
as much time as you can at the Egyptian museum. It really
doesn't matter in what order you mix and match visits to
other sites with trips to the museum. I recommend that
you schedule at least two visits. One to focus on the Tutankamun exhibits, and one to see as much of the rest
as you can. We spent two full days at the museum and two
half days.
We only paid for
one day's camera permit and used the Video camera. If you
want to photograph the Tutankamun exhibit, which is always
crowded, get there early to be first in line and run up
the stairs. It is a good idea to visit the day before to
plan your filming if you can.
Recent visitors
who wanted photograph the new Tutankamun exhibit found that the
low light made if very difficult. Video cameras should do
very well if they are high lux and fast film (with flash
turned off) is probably best for cameras. You should
bring this film with you to Egypt just to make sure. As a
side note: we used ASA 100 for all outdoor shots, the
Egyptian light is perfect for photographic work.
A complementary
trip to Rageb's Pharaonic Village in Giza can be made to
see the full scale replica of King Tutankhamun's tomb at
its point of discovery.
The Penquin
Guide gives a detailed description
of each room in the Museum on pages 104-131.
The
Lonely Planet Guide covers the
museum on pages 149-152.
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