Cairo Museum

On the Tahrir Square in the heart of the capital of Egypt is the neo-classical style building of the famous Cairo Museum, which is based on exhibits collected by its first leader, a Frenchman by nationality, Auguste Mariette. It was he who discovered this treasury in 1858, and in the beginning it was located in a completely different building, and already in 1902 the present one was built.

The Cairo Museum, whose exhibits are numerous, occupies one hundred halls. Approximately about one hundred thousand rarities, arranged in chronological order, are exhibited in it. Visitors get into the history of one of the most ancient terrestrial civilizations, the length of more than three millennia.

At the entrance, they are met by huge sculptures of the pharaoh Amenhotep III and Thia - his wife, which, contrary to tradition, has the same value as the statue of the spouse.

Cairo National Museum is considered the largest repository of exhibits of ancient Egyptian art. His pearl is the tomb of Tutankhamun, which is on the second floor. It was found in 1922 in the famous Valley of the Kings, located near Luxor. This find is considered an archaeological masterpiece, a sensation of the 20th century, because the tomb of this pharaoh is the only tomb that was not looted and appeared before people in its original form.

Transportation of the treasures of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the Cairo Museum lasted about five years, there were so many of them: the total number of all objects is more than three and a half thousand, including jewelry, household utensils and ornaments.
In several halls in which the treasures of the tomb are exposed, four wooden gilded arks are installed, in which in ancient times a stone sarcophagus of the pharaoh Tutankhamun was kept, and now located in the Valley of the Kings. The Cairo Museum exhibits three sarcophagi, one of which, of pure cast gold, weighs 110 kilograms. In the same place, visitors can see the posthumous mask of a young ruler who, made of the same precious metal, reproduces the face of Tutankhamun as accurately as possible.

Another priceless treasure that the Cairo Museum exhibits is a gilded throne adorned with a scattering of precious stones, at which this pharaoh was seated. On his armrests are depicted a snake, and on the side parts of the seat - the lion's heads. On the back of this throne, the figure of Tutankhamun and his beloved wife is executed. In the same collection, half-decayed sandals and a shirt are on display - what the young pharaoh was wearing.

Most recently Egyptian, or Cairo, the museum opened a hall in which the mummies of other kings are located. Thanks to a specially created microclimate, you can see Ramses II, Seti I, Thutmose II - only 11 pharaohs.

The most "expensive" section of the museum is works of art that came down to us from the so-called Amarna time, when Egypt was ruled by the "pharaoh heretic" Amenhotep IV, the father of Tutankhamun. He renounced many of the gods of his ancestors and formally introduced in the country the cult of the god of the Sun Aton. Thanks to its aesthetic requirements, a new, previously unprecedented artistic trend has arisen which, unlike the restrained ancient Egyptian canonical art, is very similar to a kind of expressionism.

In general, the basis of the Cairo Museum is the "Antiquities Service", organized by the Egyptian government, which in every possible way prevented the lawlessness that reigned on the site of archaeological excavations. However, the Cairo Museum owes its birth to its first director, the Egyptologist Marietta, who came to Cairo from the Louvre to purchase papyri. In love with this country, Auguste Mariette stayed here, dedicating his life to creating a museum that would have collected all the treasures found in ancient land.

His ashes rest there in the courtyard of the museum.