Two Days in the Delta - Tell Basta, Inside

By the time we finished the outside sculpture garden, it was almost 9:30 and employees were arriving so the doors of the museum building were opened and we continued our tour there.

Museum guide, Summer, escorted us through the exhibits.  She speaks good English, has a sparkling personality and seems very well-informed about all eras of local history.



The museum exhibits are well-lighted and have nice crisp descriptions in both English and Arabic in contrast to some other museums that we have seen.  We began with statues of the ancient Egyptian gods including cat-goddess, Bastet.







Of course Bastet has the most prominent statue.




I found the tools exhibit to be particularly interesting as it covers stone-age and bronze-age artifacts.










The alabaster jars are interesting because you can watch similar ones being made today, particularly if you visit Luxor, in the south.






The scarab collection is interesting because we have a number of the modern version of these beetles at home - Linda has been collecting them for years.  They make a nice gift to take home for friends and relatives, except when you have to answer the inevitable, "what is it?"






Much of the jewelry is intriguing since it bears a strong resemblance to Native American crafts from the southwestern United States.











The coin collection is quite extensive with excellent quality pieces.




Like the coins, the terracotta pottery comes from Greek and Roman times.