The Hunterian is the first medical/surgical museum ever, and is located, if I remember rightly, in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. There are varying reports as to whether or not it’s open to the public, but I wandered right in without let or hindrance, and the one fellow on duty smilingly showed me how things worked.

I was the only person there. And it’s a big place.

It’s not as big as it once was, though. It took a direct hit from a largeish bomb in WW II, and while I don’t remember the exact numbers, its 50,000 items were reduced to about 3,000 by the damage. One exhibit shows photos of the aftermath. It’s surprising they got anything back. The roof was the new floor and the walls were non-existent.

Ok, there may be spookier museums on this planet but I don’t know what they might be.

[Scratch that. I do know. My Egyptology teacher told me she once went to the Cairo Museum during the aftermath of the Six-Day War. There was no power and the building was sandbagged and bunkered, but as a matter of national pride, the Egyptians insisted on keeping it open. They handed you a flashlight at the front door. Now that museum was spooky!]

The museum is set up differently than a museum which gets a large number of visitors. There is no over-arching flow-control crowd management in the layout. The display cases are unlit. There are large brass electric switches on each case which will turn on the light while you look at it, and you’re expected to turn the light off before you move on. There is one laminated plastic card per case for you to pick up and read.

This is not a museum for the masses. And it has things in it you will never, not ever, forget.

If you turn your back on pharaonic Egypt and explore Islamic Egypt, you’ll find yourself quite, quite alone. We went to mosques which compare to the Vatican in their grandeur and there were absolutely no tourists except us. That’s the joy of having obscure interests. No waiting in line to have your picture taken with Mickey.

Oh, yeah. Just what we need. Another skull anomaly.

The mosques we went to weren’t empty by any means, but we were often the only tourists in sight. Everybody else was just there to pray.

BTW the Coptic Museum is worth a look. “My, that’s an interesting-looking manuscript there. I wonder what it is? Hmmm….’Nag Hammadi Codex…’ GACK!”