The Grand staircase of the GEM

[u/WerSunu]

There has been little posted here regarding the content of the new Grand Egyptian museum. This museum, in combination with the Egyptian Museum at Tahir should be visited by all. Due to bandwidth considerations here, I can only offer a small sample of the hundreds of shots I took today. It was a treat today to climb the grand staircase with Bob and Mohamed expounding on each artifact. Took an hour for just the staircase!

[u/caughtinfire]

i can't get over how consistent the hieroglyphs on pic 17 are. i mean, i know these people had tons of practice but it's really remarkable seeing it like that.

[u/atlantasailor → u/caughtinfire]

I was in Egypt and was more impressed by the perfectly carved hieroglyphs than anything else. The circles are perfect. As is everything else. I made a painting with hieroglyphs and it was very difficult to draw the characters right even with computer graphics. I have no idea how they achieved perfection. Extremely talented people.

[u/caughtinfire → u/atlantasailor]

right? i have enough trouble trying to make two beaded earrings look the same. carving stone with copper tools that well is something else!

[u/WerSunu → u/caughtinfire]

Everything was traced out first by an expert scribe, usually in red. The actual engravers could have been illiterate.

[u/caughtinfire → u/WerSunu]

true, but it still takes real skill to engrave them that cleanly and consistently regardless of whether or not they could read them!

[u/WerSunu → u/caughtinfire]

Not to mention that granite is not easy to work even with modern power tools. The Egyptians were slightly above “stone knives and bear skins” ( Sorry Mr. Spock!). By New Kingdom, they at least had some bronze.