Egyptian Unrest

In September 2006, Tommy and I went on our honeymoon to Egypt. Since then we have encouraged anyone and everyone to add Egypt to their bucket list or 100 things to do before I die list or their itinerary for their next set of international travels. No one has actually gone based on our recommendation but that hasn't stopped us from encouraging; until this weekend.

The government in Egypt has been unstable for many years. Our government's support of those unstable political leaders around the world leaves me perplexed. When a country's citizens live on less than $2 per day it is astounding to me that the political leaders think that the status quo is acceptable.

We knew that the government of Egypt didn't have their priorities straight when we visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. We were awed at the thought of visiting the artifacts found intact in King Tut's tomb. We were excited to see mummies that were preserved 1000s of years ago. We couldn't wait for a guided tour into pharonic times. And then we entered the museum.

The picture above is the exterior of the museum. Magnificent architecture, impressive presence on the outside but once you step inside (where we were not allowed to take photographs) we were utterly shocked. It was not climate controlled, there were stacks of sarcophagus along the hallways, huge (and I mean huge) statues were pushed up against one another in no order whatsoever. The display cases didn't have labels for anything.

Side note - I mentioned our guided tour above - that is why I think nothing had labels. In an effort to keep all of the local archaeology majors employed the only way to really visit the museum was to have a guide. Ours was very knowledgeable and knew the ins and outs of the museum. His English was perfect. We also saw guides who spoke French, Spanish and Russian and I am sure there were other languages. While I think it is noble to be creative in keeping your unemployment rate down it sure seems like the museum could still invest a little in proper cataloging of their artifacts.

While we have our grievances about the museum we were saddened to hear that looters entered the museum and damaged some of the ancient pieces that were on display. Through news reports we read that some of the protesters turned into security guards and tackled the looters in an effort to protect their country's history. I am proud of those people but I wonder if investment in the security of the museum could have prevented the damage that did occur.

It is this lack of investment that the Egyptians make in their own history that makes me staunchly opposed to the return of any artifacts displayed in foreign museums. If Egypt cannot care for their history then we must be sure to preserve it by other means.

My heart is sad for the people of Egypt. Tonight parts of the city in the photo below are on fire. Ironically, we took this photo from the Citadel, a medieval military fortress that sits atop a limestone hill and was chosen for its commanding view of the city below.

We hope that the unrest in Egypt calms and that the people there have a chance to fairly chose who governs them. I know elections are not perfect and political manuevering by our governments have greater agendas than I can understand but my hope is that we can someday recommend again that others travel to Egypt. Just look at how happy we were.