One morbid museum

I decided to go to the museums today. There was the Luxor museum and the mummification museum. Fortunately I lucked out and got off the bus as close as it went to the Luxor museum. The overpriced bookstore at the museum really didn’t have any worthwhile books which was too bad. The museum was pretty awesome though. It’s nothing like the Cairo museum of course, but still a worthwhile visit. There were many statues at this museum, mostly of stone and a few of wood. The alabaster ones were my favourites.

There were two royal mummies at this museum, one was Ahmose I which I could swear asked me to help him get the hell out of there after I mentioned it must suck to be sitting there on display all the time. The other mummy was much older, and is believed to be the mummy of Ramses I. This is still up for debate though as they aren’t completely sure. The mummy was originally in a Canadian museum, but the stupid ass Canadians went and sold it to some small US museum, who did some work to find the approximate date of the mummy, and eventually gifted it back to Egypt. I decided to not talk to this one since Ramses I kicked considerable ass as a priest and as a fighter, and the other mummy had an extremely strong presence after I started chatting!

This museum had a pretty good amulet and talisman section, which is always one of my favourite parts of any museum :). There were the standard scarabs, eyes of Horus and the like, as well as a few other designs. The jewellery section was also nice, with quite a bit of gold, including the largest version of the honouring fly necklace I have ever seen! Most versions of the fly necklace have little tiny flies, but this one, had solid gold (18k of course) 2” flies! These necklaces were given to people who did exceptionally well in battle btw.

There was also a good display of the funerary furniture that was used in the tombs, such as the bed, head rest, closets and etc. There was also a case of what must have been over 100 faliace mini statues to serve the king in his afterlife. The weapons exhibit was the main part of this museum, and was quite interesting, with axes, bows, arrows, a war chariot (which was Tutankhamen’s), practice scenes on walls and so on. There were also a few bits of papyrus and some cloth from the old kingdom which were quite interesting. My favourite parts of this museum were the different wands some of the pharaohs and priests were holding, not the standard well known wands at all. There was also of course a statue of Horus that I quite liked.

After telling a few felucca captains and carriage drivers where they could stick their feluccas and carriages, I made it over to the mummification museum. This was an extremely small museum, but also quite interesting. First there were drawings of the different processes of mummification and the process of the dead going through to the afterlife and the weighing of the soul. One scene had a description stating that they were pouring molten resin onto the cloth strips/bandages... but the image showed them doing this with their bare hands (copied from actual temple walls). Later on in the museum they have a display of the various substances used in mummification including the resins, sawdust, and various dyes which were used. There was also an old paint palette with paint still in it.

Being a mummification museum they of course also had some mummies, a couple of pretty much unknown nobles. Along with them, there were mummies of various animals, such as an Ibis and a baboon for Dehuty, a crocodile for Sobek, some fish, a cat, and a few other animals. Nothing like the Cairo museum collection, but still quite interesting. On display were also some of the tools used for mummification, such as the metal bits used to pull the brain out through the nostrils.

They also had on display some of the most beautiful canopic jars (and their box) that I have ever seen! Being a mummification museum it is only right that they have some pretty awesome canopic jars there. The best part were the wooden coverings for the royal mummies. They were in nearly perfect condition with the colours, inlay, gold leafing and carving intact. The designs on them were amazing! Unfortunately I couldn’t take photos in either museum, which is a shame as there were some perfect shots. I didn’t feel the books of photos were worth the $20 they were asking either.

I walked back, and went into one of the mediocre restaurants the guide book recommended. Like the book says, people come to Luxor for ancient monuments, not fine dining. There really aren’t any really amazing restaurants in Luxor from what I have found, or the guide book says. There is of course the yummy pizza place, but that is far from gourmet cuisine.