This is my travel diary of my trip to Egypt. It contains in detail my memories of what I did and saw.
Sunday October 25, 2015
Egypt: Day 4, Part 3 – Memphis Open Air Museum
As we drove to Memphis I marveled again at the small villages and towns we were driving through. I swear I saw every type of livestock and animal that could be ridden or eaten (well except for Rabbits or Llamas). I saw Yaks, Water Buffalos, Camels, Horses, Donkeys, Cows, lambs, Ducks, Chickens, as well as plenty of dogs and cats. I chatted a bit with Mohsen before they turned on the radio and we listened to music. At one point Mohsen and I stopped at a shop along the road to buy water. I had enough snacks with me, but Mohsen bought some cigarettes for later.
When we arrived to the open air museum at Memphis, Mohsen helped me buy my ticket (43 EGP) but then Mohsen asked if it was okay if he could take a smoke break. I knew that the main selling point was the massive statue of Rameses II, and that the rest of the museum was not generally talked about much. So I said okay and headed on in. As you enter you immediately turn right and see a structure around the statue. You can walk around the statue to see the various details. I was the only one there. A caretaker came up and unasked started telling me basic things. “This is the Pharaoh Ramses II, see here is his cartouche.” Things that were quite apparent. There are also various small broken statues around the wall and the caretaker again would babble off very basic information. I didn’t know what to do, as I knew I’d be expected to pay for this “tour”. I decided to just not look at the guy, not nod or anything, and continue as I would normally.
As I made the circuit around the room I could see the stairs to the upper viewing platform. As I started up the stairs, the caretaker started asking for money. I handed a 5 EGP note to him, and played dumb “Thank you! Thank you! Yes yes good good!” He kept saying it was too little, but I pretended not to understand him. He then was like “My friend, you took a picture of my friend, you must pay him!” I knew I didn’t take a single picture of any one of them, but I pulled out three 1 EGP coins and placed it into his friends hand saying “Oh thank you! Thank you!” Pretending like I didn’t know the exchange rate and that I thought it was an appropriate amount of money. (And it was, they hadn’t provided any service.)
I could hear the two men grumbling and calling me an idiot as I climbed the stairs, but I continued to smile and wave like I couldn’t hear them. As you walk up the stairs more broken statues and columns are placed here and there, nothing in the entire museum is labeled. As I walked the upper platform I snapped more pictures and marveled at the state of Egyptian tourism. In good years people would have waited a long time to circle the bottom and top floors, and there would have been no way to get “empty” shots of the statue. Today? It was just myself (and the two grumbling caretakers still half-heartedly whispering and shooting me dirty looks.)
I took a long time savoring the details before I cast my eyes out on the rest of the open air museum. And I wasn’t that impressed. I could see a few rows of broken statues and false doors in dusty cabinets out in the open. Further off I could see some larger statues, and off to the left I could see stand after stand of souvenir sellers, forlornly eyeing the 3 other tourists in the entire enclosure.
Marching down the stairs past the caretakers I went off exploring. I saw a lovely sphinx, but it was near the sellers and a tout kept bugging me asking if I wanted my photo taken (and to have to pay for the pleasure) so I waved them off, keeping my camera stuck to my face to make a point that I was too busy.
As I turned down a path I saw parts of broken columns, with hieroglyphics. This was the first time seeing real hieroglyphics in Egypt and here they were, right out in the open. No guards, I could reach out and touch them (but I didn’t). As I walked around trying to make sense I’d see deception of gods that I could recognize. I stumbled upon a female guide and her charged and wistfully wished that I had hired a real Egyptologist to explain things to me. Mohsen was great…but I was in the museum alone, and with no labels, I wasn’t getting any context. Not wanting to mooch off this woman and her paying customer, I moved on alone.
I came across another large statue of Ramses II, this one fully intact. I then wandered along a dusty path at the edge of the wall and came down the 3 rows of broken statues. There was another nice intact Ramses II statue, but everything else was pretty Meh. After stopping at the bathrooms I headed outside in search of Mohsen and our driver, so we could head to Saqqara.
Hi, thank you for detailed info here. Could you please let me know why you were paying 43 EGP for the ticket when the actual price is 40 EGP (printed on the ticket)? I saw a similar discrepancy in another ticket price in your blog as well. Thank you.
I noticed a lot of the Printed Prices on the tickets were not what their signs said, or what they actually charged us. I figured it was that they have so many tickets that were printed prior to the drop in tourism, and that they have raised prices since then. For example, the price on the Tut’s Tomb tickets they are about 50% less than what we were charged, and they actually just staple two identical tickets together to show that you paid. I also notice my friend who used her student card, the student ticket’s printed price, and what she paid was not the same. But, if it was a rip off, it seems weird it would only be such a small rip off, For example 3 EGP is what, less than .40 Cents in USD? So to me it seems like they increased prices but haven’t used up all the old tickets.