Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 81 Cairo Museum Tour
"I really didn't expect that the other party would refuse to tell us our destination now." After Bernard finished the basic registration and left, Fan Meng whispered to Liang En.

As a former soldier of the Foreign Legion, Fan Meng's French level can be said to be very good among non-French native speakers, so he naturally knows what Bernard said just now.

"Honestly, it makes me feel as bad as if we didn't give the mission objectives before the mission. I hate this feeling of facing the unknown."

"There's no other way." Liang En spread his hands and shook his head helplessly. "After all, piracy is too rampant on the east and south coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, so we must prevent some bad situations from happening."

In fact, the act of looting antiquities also has a very ancient history.In ancient Egypt, even the tombs of some pharaohs and nobles were stolen shortly after they were buried.

For people in some regions and cultures, excavating antiquities is a way of life, usually something the poor have to do to survive.

To take the simplest example, in some war-torn areas, shops are closed and fields are burned, and there is no possibility of going out to make a living.In this case, if a person excavates some antiquities and sells them in order to support his family, it is difficult for people to blame him.

But the problem is that the excavation activities in many areas have become large-scale activities. In those chaotic areas, some guys will loot some ruins, and even destroy those ruins in the end.

For example, during the turmoil in Egypt in the past few years, all kinds of robbery and digging operations suddenly increased.At least the number of various robbery holes on the ground has increased significantly.

Making matters worse is the fact that most of these stolen artifacts end up in auction houses in New York or London, or even put up for public sale on eBay.

This situation shows from the side that behind many thefts and excavations, it is not just the simple purpose of the local people to make money, but a part of the international cultural relics black market.

Also because of this reason.So formal archaeological teams like them have to choose to hide their research destinations.Avoid being dug up by well-informed thieves one step ahead and destroying the scene.

After a day in Paris, they flew directly to Cairo.

Because the plane is an Egyptian airline, all the waiters on it speak English with an Egyptian accent.So much so that Liang En and the others could only guess what the flight attendants were talking about.

Because it is winter now, the weather in Cairo on the Mediterranean coast is not bad. After leaving the airport, it is not as hot as imagined.

And when everyone brought their luggage to the suburban hotel that they had contacted in advance, Professor Jacques, the team leader, announced that everyone could disband and go out for a stroll.Of course, the other party also specially reminded everyone to go to places with many people as much as possible, and not to go to shantytowns.

So after exchanging a large amount of Egyptian pounds on the first floor of the hotel, Liang En and Fan Meng went out to go around the city center.Unlike London, taxi drivers here don't use their meters at all.

Fortunately, the charge from here to the city center was only 3 euros, so Liang En didn't bother to negotiate the price, but just agreed and got in the car and went straight to the city.

Soon, the car drove onto the avenue leading to the city center. Although there were no guardrails around this avenue and it was all made of concrete piers, the two-way, eight-lane road was really well repaired.

In particular, this road has neither speed limit nor traffic lights, so they took less than half of the expected time to arrive near Liberation Square in the city center under the driving of the driver, and Liang En and his target Cairo National Museum is in There.

To be honest, Liang En would rather not save this little time.Because the group of Cairo drivers on the road were driving too wildly, they would snake their way on the straight road and accelerate to turn.

In addition, the heavily armed checkpoints before entering the city also made Liang En a little uncomfortable. Fortunately, Liang En and the others had Asian faces and looked like tourists.So I was just checked up and down with a metal detector, and I didn't enjoy the whole body of the police with guns.

"Since we are here to investigate the ancient Egyptian cultural relics and ruins, we must come here to have a look." Looking at the double-storey luxurious stone building opposite the square, Liang En introduced to Fan Meng. "This is one of the top museums in the world."

"It can be seen." Fan Meng looked at the armed guards around the museum and said, "If this place is not important, there shouldn't be so many armed guards."

Around the walls of the National Museum in Cairo, there are guards at three steps and one sentry at five steps, all armed guards with guns.After entering, I found that I had to go through three inspections to enter the door, and I had to search myself when I went out.

However, the ticket price here is not expensive. A ticket only costs 100 Egyptian pounds, which is equivalent to 4.6 pounds.And this ticket also includes the main exhibition hall and the Tutankhamun Pavilion.

What's interesting is that above the price list next to the ticket office, it says in English and Arabic that photography is prohibited in the museum, and next to this line it says, unless you buy a photo ticket.

After buying two tickets and a photo ticket, Liang En and Fan Meng walked into the exhibition hall, and they were shocked as soon as they entered the exhibition hall.

The exhibition hall on the first floor is filled with huge statues from various temples, some of which are obviously incomplete and should be placed here for repair, while the other part is very precious and is not suitable to be placed outside.

The density of artefacts in this museum makes it look more like a warehouse than the empty museums in London.And most of the sculptures don't even have a glass cover, they don't even have a fence.

"Hey, let's get in touch with history." After looking around, I couldn't find a placard prohibiting touching, and the staff in the venue didn't stop it either.So Fan Meng simply stepped forward and touched the huge statues placed outside.

At this time, Liang En observed all the representative statues carefully, and took a bunch of photos in line with the words on them.Because these words are very valuable to him.

After spending nearly two hours carefully looking through the pile of things on the first floor, the two went up to the second floor.Different from the large items on the first floor, the second floor is full of small items, giving people the feeling that they have entered an antique shop from a warehouse.

The most eye-catching one is the Tutankhamun Pavilion. After entering, you can see the world-famous golden mask in the middle.In addition, a piece of golden cultural relics placed in the museum makes people feel quite drunk.

However, Liang En and Fan Meng spent less time visiting than most tourists, because they did not visit the royal mummy hall which charges a fee.After all, for Chinese like them, visiting the golden coffin is already the limit, let alone the mummy.

"I really don't understand why so many people are willing to pay to visit the morgue." After watching a group of chattering American tourists buy tickets to enter the royal mummy museum, Fan Meng complained, "Don't they think it's bad luck?"

"Europeans don't seem to be so taboo about this." Liang En shrugged. "At least as far as I know, there are several guys in London who not only collect mummies, but keep them in their homes."

(End of this chapter)