Cairo Military Museum

[Peter_Suciu]

During my travels I had a chance to visit the Egyptian National Military Museum in the Saladin Citadel. My family was at the Mohammed Ali Mosque and I went to the military museum. I had to pay $1 to take photos, and I realized I only had American money and Euros, and the smallest bill was stupidly a $20 (I blame the tour guide but that's another story). So I paid the guards $20 and they ended up moving ropes and letting me in a few rooms that were closed. I wish I could have seen more, but the tour guide was upset enough that I was delaying her. This was a private guide that my family hired, so my mother told her we had to wait.

The tour guide and I didn't hit it off, but then again I told her I was more impressed with the Suez Canel than the pyramids. I mean the Americans have built a larger pyramid in Vegas, and no one else has but the British and French have built a canal at sea level as long as long as the Suez without locks!

But here are some of the photos from the Museum's collection:

A mid-19th Century Egyptian Summer uniform

The pre-WWI British influenced uniform still features some Turkish flair

Royal Guard Uniforms

A "Fuzzy" as the British called them. This is a Madhi warrior from the Anglo-Egyptian invasion of the Sudan in 1896. 100 years ago the Sudan was a lawless state with warlords and today... well, it is a lawless state with warlords. I bet in 100 years...

Some of the weapons from the Sudan campaign

 

[Larmo]

Fascinating Peter, very cool...

Larmo

 

[b.loree]

Thanks Peter, very interesting. Reminds me of Kahartom....the movie with Heston and Olivier. Brian

 

[Peter_Suciu]

Hi Brian-
Yes those are the same blokes as in Khartoum, just 14 years later. Basically the events in the film take place in 1882 and Khartoum fell to the Madhi, who then died six months later.

His followers hung on, and finally the British decided to go back and "liberate" the Sudan. I could write a book on this, but several have been written. Basically the British wanted a hold on Egypt to control the Suez Canal for their route to India. To control Egypt they needed to control the Nile and that meant controlling the Sudan. So all these lands were really about India.

So in 1896 the British sent Kitchner to do the deed. Of course he led an Egytian Army officially, even if it did include British regiments, along with a young Winston Churchill in tow.

Meanwhile the French had a small unit, under an officer named Marchand who basically WALKED across Africa to Fashoda in the Sudan to raise the French flag. He was greatly outnumbered and expected to face the Madhi's forces... then a bunch of gun boats comes down the Nile. They weren't Sudanese, they were British.

The French and British almost went to war, and strangely no one knows this today. So the French blinked, and Marchand had to walk to the Red Sea and sailed home. I'd like to write a movie treatment about him.

All interesting stuff. The irony is that in the various European museums I've seen the British and French uniforms but hardly anything from the Madhi forces, so it was a treat to see those in Cairo.