When we finally got back to Cairo on a chilly Friday evening, it took us quite a while to find a suitable and quiet (not really willing to head back to the busy Talaat Harb) place to stay. After walking for a kilometer (from the spot where the airport taxi dropped us), we were particularly relieved to settle for Garden City House (E£166/S$41.50 per night), a mid-ranger located in a quiet area of Cairo (along Kamal ad-Din Salah) but in close proximity to Midan Tahrir and Egyptian Museum. I wondered why we did not discover this gem in our earlier visit to the capital. Anyway, we had such a great night sleep after a heavy dinner at a nearby Pizza Hut. *embarrassed*

The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, (a.k.a. Egyptian Museum) is THE home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. The current building (2 main floors), completed in 1902, house about 120,000 (!) artifacts with a representative amount on display and the rest kept in storerooms. While the exhibits on the ground floor is arranged chronologically, i.e. from the ancient 1st dynasty (around 3,000BC) to the Roman invasion in 30BC, the items displayed on the 1st floor is generally arranged in themes. For example, a large part of the 1st floor had been dedicated to the treasures recovered from Tutankhamun tomb in Luxor. Another key (and premium) highlight is the Royal Mummy Room which contains the various royal mummies recovered from pharaonic era.

We made our way (via a quick 10-min walk) to the Egyptian Museum (E£60/S$15 per entry) next morning after the typical guesthouse breakfast of an egg, bread, butter and sugary tea. As expected, there were already alot of visitors when we were there at 9.30am (it opens at 9am). After several checkpoints (on bags and tickets), we were formally in the museum though trying to find a place to stand as there were a lot tour groups assembled at the entrance.

If a visitor explores ground floor in a clockwise direction (starting from the main entrance), he/she will be going through Egypt's history in a chronological order. While I was trying to read the guidebook to look out for the important exhibits, we realised the famous exhibits generally have tour groups crowding beside it. As cameras were not allowed in the museum, there is an acute shortage of photographs of the exhibits in this blog (on hindsight, if I was allowed to take photographs, we probably would need 2 days for just the ground floor!).

After a gruelling 4-hour tour of the ground floor (we ensured every room were covered), we rested and had lunch at the museum cafeteria. We felt really tired though we still not done 1st floor yet...