We were on the go as soon as we landed in Egypt! After meeting our tour guide Moses (no joke, that’s his real name), we went off to the Egyptian Museum which houses many artefacts from the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. According to Moses, it would take us three days to go through all of the sections in the museum, so we just went through the highlights as we were pressed for time.
Photography isn’t allowed inside the museum. To make sure, we all had to deposit our cameras and smartphones.
Two pretty birds hanging out in the pond fronting the museum
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| This is Moses our tour guide with one of the staff from Golden Papyrus |
After the papyrus strips are laid out and “woven” together…
…they go into this pressing machine to squeeze out excess water.
It is then laid out to dry. Papyrus paper is very sturdy and can withstand getting soaked in water even after it is dried out.
While there are street vendors that claim to sell papyrus paintings for $1-$5, be warned that these are not authentic. According to our tour group head, these are usually made with just banana leaves. I bought three paintings from the shop and even had one inscribed with the names of my family members in hieroglyphs.
Ingrid Nieto-Pagulayan 