Four Thousand Years, Preserved

There is an account of a visit made to see it, and of money paid for the purpose, because Allah mentions it in the Qur'an. A nominal fee is charged for entry to the museum — a building of four or five storeys in Cairo, which the British built about a hundred years ago — and then a further charge, more than double the first, to enter the one room in which the mummies lie. It was forty Egyptian pounds at the door and ninety for the chamber, and it seemed right to pay it, because Allah speaks of this in the Qur'an. The expense can be spared, however: a search online for Ramesses II brings up his mummy for anyone to see.

Yet there is something else in seeing the body itself, in the flesh — there is probably no blood left in it, but flesh there is. It is a remarkable thing. Four thousand years.

The other point is that when Allah does a thing, He does it thoroughly. It is not only Pharaoh who is there; it is everything he possessed — though the placing of it there was, of course, a decision of the Egyptians of the time. That museum of five storeys, or four, holds everything, from Pharaoh's chariot, the Rolls-Royce of its day, to his needle. There is even a mirror. He has everything in there. When Allah preserved him, He preserved everything. Four thousand years. There is probably nothing else preserved in such detail of which the Qur'an speaks. It is a marvel.