http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/01/international/africa/01museum.html
A New York Times article about the conditions in the Cairo Museum basement: "Step through a small, Hobbit-sized door, down a steep flight of stairs and through a locked gate. The basement is a maze of arched passageways and bare light bulbs hanging from decaying wires. It is packed with wooden crates, hundreds of them, sometimes piled floor to ceiling. Cobwebs cling to ancient pottery and tablets engraved with hieroglyphics. Six hundred coffins and 170 mummies have been found so far. No one knows what may have been stolen over the years . . . . Right now, it is a mess. There are human remains on shelves, human skulls sitting in crates, tablets and amulets and bowls and jars scattered here and there. In one corner, Ms. Abdel Razek points out half a dozen intricately painted coffins. When she first entered the area, she said, they were strewn about, tops and bottoms mixed up, and each was covered in such a heavy layer of dirt that it was impossible to tell what they were".
A New York Times article about the conditions in the Cairo Museum basement: "Step through a small, Hobbit-sized door, down a steep flight of stairs and through a locked gate. The basement is a maze of arched passageways and bare light bulbs hanging from decaying wires. It is packed with wooden crates, hundreds of them, sometimes piled floor to ceiling. Cobwebs cling to ancient pottery and tablets engraved with hieroglyphics. Six hundred coffins and 170 mummies have been found so far. No one knows what may have been stolen over the years . . . . Right now, it is a mess. There are human remains on shelves, human skulls sitting in crates, tablets and amulets and bowls and jars scattered here and there. In one corner, Ms. Abdel Razek points out half a dozen intricately painted coffins. When she first entered the area, she said, they were strewn about, tops and bottoms mixed up, and each was covered in such a heavy layer of dirt that it was impossible to tell what they were".
See the full article for more details and a photograph of the basement (subscription site - username egyptnews, password egyptnews).
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