UNTIL THAT FIRST MORNING in Cairo, I had always felt the art of ancient Egypt to be out of reach. I could admire its scale, of course, and its impassive beauty. Like most New Yorkers, I had delighted at the sight of the Temple of Dendur, all lit up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as I made my way home through Central Park. But for art to really live, it cannot be the mere background. One has to find a way to understand its spirit, to inhabit the world it came from. To me, the culture of ancient Egypt had always seemed so heavily caricatured, it hardly felt real. And I’d struggled to get my head around its mind-boggling antiquity. Was it really possible that as many centuries separate Alexander the Great from the Pyramids of Giza as separate us from him?
But on that bright December morning, at the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, just west of Cairo, something changed in me forever. Finding myself in proximity to objects now banal, now wondrous, the art of ancient Egypt ceased to be remote or cartoonish. Here was Tutankhamun’s papyrus chair; there were ushabti, or funerary figurines, in various enticing shades of blue. In another room were slim-limbed funerary beds, their gold leaf still intact. One had cat-faced Sekhmet on its posts, the other the sky cow Mehet-Weret , with black trefoils decorating its gold skin. It was all so near, so intimate. Even the masked world of the pharaohs did not seem out of reach once I’d just stood inches away from Tutankhamun’s underwear—a great linen thong stained brown, not through any fault of his own, but by 33 centuries of oxidation.
Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Travel+Leisure India.
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Denne historien er fra November 2019-utgaven av Travel+Leisure India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lunching In Leh
Turtuk, the last town of India in Ladakh, is having a culinary and hospitality renaissance, discovers Harsh Surti
The Medieval Charm of Elsinore
Elsinore, in eastern Denmark, is a charming city full of surprises, such as its interesting link to Shakespeare, discovers Ami Bhat
Natural Selection
In other parts of the world, natural wine production can be raw, wild, and a little messy. But a road trip through southeastern Austria reveals that, in a land where order and understatement reign, even the low-intervention bottles are elegant and refined.
Where the Wild Things Are
Uncovering Rwanda's natural treasures-and the gift of multigenerational travel
FROM THE VOICE WITHIN
A hit new season of a cult show, a brand new production venture, and a baby girl-it seems Ali Fazal is on top of the world right now. Amid a new parenting journey, the actor talks to SAMREEN TUNGEKAR about his travel persona, his instincts, and what feeds the artiste within him
MONSOON IN THE WILD
For nature lovers craving the lush serenity of monsoon forests, off-season safaris in national park buffer zones offer rare rewards and vital support to local economies, discovers Chandreyi Bandyopadhyay.
Ray of Sunshine
Getting diagnosed with life-threatening ailments can spell doom, but for actor Lisa Ray, it became a testament to her resilience. Diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2009, the former model maintained a positive outlook, blossomed into a vocal advocate for cancer awareness and support, and turned author with a book chronicling her story. In a chat with Bayar Jain, she gets candid about her journey of hope and healing
Championing Change with Conversations That Matter
Aditi Mayer is a responsible storyteller who likes to look at fashion through a lens of social and environmental justice. She tells Samreen Tungekar about how she manages her own mental health and wellness despite work that promotes positive change and requires mental bandwidth
Travelling Through Conscious Well-Being
In the ever-evolving landscape of wellness, where data meets intuition and science aligns with ancient practices, Deepak Chopra stands as a unique bridge between these worlds. Chopra talks to Dipali Patwa about how travel, when intertwined with wellness, becomes a powerful catalyst for personal transformation.
Transcending The 'Trend'
For Rimzim Dadu, the creation of a collection is about lending the pieces a timeless quality. Samreen Tungekar talks to the designer about her creative process, and how her travels intersperse with her approach to design