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Today was a great day! We went to the Cairo museum and the Khan El Khalili! Once again I had more dreams come true. We went to the Cairo museum! Of course, pictures aren't allowed, so I don't have pics of any of the cool stuff we saw... but trust me, we saw it! Of course there was the King Tut treasures.... when people speak of the gold and decadence of the ancient Egyptians, I now know what they. King tut's coffin was encased in THREE huge golden boxes, taller than most rooms in your house. The jewels he was wearing-- indescribable! And then... the mask. That famous burial mask. Took my breath away. The Cairo museum is home to so many ancient treasures. But did you know that there is also a basement full of ancient artifacts that they have yet to get to?? We explored a little of this basement, and its incredible all the stones and artifacts that are just laying around in there! I have a few favorite things that we saw, and of course one of them was the King Tut mask. Another favorite was this portion of a floor that they had... it is from the ancient city of Amarna. Amarna is where Pharoah Amunhotep (who later became Ahkenaten, and was King Tut's father) moved the kingdom of Egypt during his reign. He was married to Nefertiti (and Queen Kiya, who was Tut's mother) and was seen by subsequent generations as a heretic because he delared Aten to be the only god. He tried to change Egypt from a polytheistic culture to a monotheistic one. The people didn't like this. Eventually, he was killed, as was Nefertiti and the magnificent city of Amarna was completely destroyed. Today, there is almost nothing left in the city of Amarna that would even hint to the glory that once was there. (I read a great book about this... its an historical fiction called "Nefertiti" by Michelle Moran and is the first in a series of books by this author.) So when we saw the floor that was salvaged from temple of Aten in Amarna, I was thrilled!! It was beautiful and covered in gorgeous paintings!

Finally, my favorite part was the mummies. Ah, the mummies. There were two different rooms full of royal mummies. Like Sean said, I was kind of afraid to look at them too closely... their features are so perfectly preserved! Most of the mummies were smaller than I thought they'd be. I guess Egyptians at that time were of smaller build than I initially imagined them to be. As we were going into the second room of royal mummies, there were three glass boxes, each containing a mummy sitting out in the hall. We walked by them and quickly glanced at the names, and then I stopped in my tracks.... these were the ACTUAL mummies of Ahkenaten, Queen Kiya and King Ay----- the decendants of King Tut and the people I'd been reading about in my book!!!! Talk about a treat! Mom said these weren't on display last time she was at the museum. The reason?? They'd been doing a lot of reserach lately to find who King Tut's parents were... there's even a big Discovery Channel special on it. But their research was done, and they were back on display- albeit in the hallway! (My guess is they're making a special place for these guys!) This was by far the greatest thing!! I was so excited, it bordered on geeky. :-) They are building a new museum, and I hope they are able to display all the artifacts better. There is just so much to see!!!

All along I have been really looking forward to shopping at the world-famous Khan El Khalili, and we actually got to do that today!!! Zaki (who is now by far our favorite driver!) dropped us off at one of the entrances and we met up with MOm's friend, Avis. Avis has lived in Egypt several years and knows a lot of the great shops in the Khan. We bought a lot of great stuff!! Avis took us to some off-the-beaten-path shops, and my favorite was the Copper! Oh. My. Goodness. I could fill my house with this stuff! Every inch of the crowded little stores were filled with treasures, some new, some old. I found an awesome bronze genie lamp (not old, but ornate and cool nonetheless) and two old bronze kohl bottles! (These really are treasures!) We also saw a guy who does beautiful in-lay work with mother of pearl and wood. Mom may have a game table made in this fashion, which I think would be incredible!! The guy at this store gave us a free bronze camel. Pretty good bartering, huh? :-) The shop owners wanted their pictures with us because they were happy about the deals they'd made. We had lunch at a famous fancy restaurant right in the heart of the Khan... the tables were shiny copper and intricately carved! We enjoyed some delicious traditional food. Before we left, we stopped for cokes at an outdoor restaurant. The guy tried to charge us 20 LE per coke!!! That's $4 a piece!! He was trying to rip us off, but Avis wouldn't have it. Afterall, we weren't tourists, we were locals! One of the many things I love about Egypt is the kindness of the people. They would ask mom where she's from and she would tell them she lives in Cairo now, and every time their response was, "Oh! You are Egyptian now!" How welcoming and cool is that!?? Oh, and the LOVE Americans. For some reason, they think we're nice. :-) The Khan was an amazing success!