the nubian museum

I went without a guide to the Nubian museum, and perhaps a guide might have helped, but then again guides and drivers tend to get expensive after a time, and they also don’t allow you to take several hours in the area (they get paid per trip), unless it’s pre-arranged and at an extra cost. I will have to purchase a book about the Nubian museum I think since there is so much information about pre-Dynasty Egypt as well as the old Kingdom in that museum. I walked from my hotel to the museum as I like walking and haggling with taxi drivers can get old after a time. It only took about 1/2 hour to walk there, along the nile which of course is a very pretty walk.In the museum my favourite part was the amulets and talismans displays of course :>. They had 3 cases of jewellery which also included the amulet and talismans. There were many to protect the heart, some for protection in general, and some to bring good luck. Alligator bits were used for one of the talismans, what looked like seeds for some others, and some with inscriptions in gold or semi precious stones as well. Much of what is in the Nubian museum looks more like pre-historic caveman type stuff then your standard Egyptian fare. I also quite loved the crowns, they were in silver, since silver was thought to be more precious then gold back then. I sure wish that was still the case! One of the crowns had eyes of Horus all over it, as well as giant cabochons of what looked to be either carnelian or garnet.There were pieces of rock with ancient hieroglyphics and cave art style drawings, pre-historic (as well as more modern) spear heads, knives as well as other weapons and tools. They also of course had many statues there including a GIANT one of Ramses II. It came as a bit of a surprise as I didn’t know that statue was there, and as soon as I walked into the museum and looked in that direction I was overwhelmed by a massive amount of energy and I would swear the statue was looking at me and grinning. I have seen a LOT of Ramses II statues in Egypt (he had many built to maintain his immortality) and I have to say out of all of them, this particular one had the most presence of Ramses II. This was a much older statue, and not carved in the same form as the newer (well newer as far as ancient Egypt goes) ones. This statue was likely more of a realistic depiction of a person, instead of the perfect image of the King style statues they made in the later periods.They also had a display of what Nubian life would have been like back then with some realistic dummies. From what I heard they even have real human hair to appear more realistic. When visiting the small Nubian village, I would say not all that much has changed accept now they have electricity in their small huts/houses, and there is a modern looking (well more modern) schoolhouse. The museum also had Nubian/Christian as well as Nubian Muslim displays for during the times that the Romans and then Muslims (forgot where they came from) took over. There were statues of the Nubian version of Horus and Osiris which were interesting.On the way back the driver of a horse drawn carriage came up and tried to talk me into a ride but quoted the most ridiculous price! ($10US) So then when a taxi driver came up I was much more interested and he agreed to my offer of $2. Well the carriage driver (and his 2 buddies) started yelling at the cabbie, and they all started yelling back and forth various insults in Arabic. One of the guys then grabbed the cabbies keys out of the car, and a fist fight nearly broke out. Apparently $2 is more money then I thought in Egypt. Of course at the end of it, as is standard for Egyptian cabbies, he tried to make up several stories of why I should pay him more then $10, so I slammed the door, called him a con artist and yelled at him (I really need to learn the words for “con artist” in Arabic lol). From what I can tell they always try to pull one over on you, and you just have to tell them off and walk away.Finally in the evening when walking back from my favourite restaurant in Aswan I found somewhere that sold incense charcoals, and a “store” next to it that sold frankincense (and copal), and likely myrrh as well. This was in the market. I’m thinking I likely paid more then has ever been paid for incense and charcoals in Egypt, even though I did talk them down to 1/3 of the price they quoted me.