Egyptian National Military Museum

The Egyptian National Military Museum is located within the Cairo Citadel, a walled complex of fortifications and various types of buildings which is on a promontory overlooking Cairo.

When you enter the museum area you'll see this statue of one of Egypt's historic military heroes called Ibrahim Pasha, who was the son (possibly adopted) of Muhammad Ali, who is generally considered the founder of modern Egypt.   Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha weren't Egyptian by birth, they both came from a part of the Turkish Ottoman empire which is now within the borders of Greece.

About 20 years after Muhammad Ali became ruler of Egypt he sent Ibrahim Pasha in an ill-conceived attempt to put down a native Greek rebellion which was being supported by Great Britain, France and Russia.   Against Ibrahim's advice, he was ordered to join battle against the combined navies of the European powers, and the entire Ottoman fleet was destroyed.

Ibrahim had considerably more success fighting against the Wahhabis in the Arabian peninsula (though the unpleasantly rigid Wahhabi brand of Islam is now dominant in Saudi Arabia), and he also did very well fighting against the Ottomans in Syria.   However, continual interventions by European countries prevented him from making lasting conquests, and he eventually retreated to Egypt, which he ruled briefly before his death in 1848.

Although he wasn't really Egyptian, and although he certainly had his failures, Ibrahim's successes make him an appropriate candidate for national hero in Egypt.   He certainly looks noble up on his horse, but contemporary accounts describe him as short, very obese and deeply scarred by smallpox.

Here's one of the few exhibits relating to the Islamic age, a replica catapult which the accompanying plaque says is of the same type used by the Prophet Mohammed to besiege the city of Elta'ef.

The plaque further describes the purpose of the catapult as being to throw arrows, throw rocks to destroy citadels, throw the fire balls, and throw scorpions or dusty baskets.   It isn't really explained how dusty baskets will cause your enemy to capitulate, and personally I think the use of scorpions as weapons of war is grossly over-rated; if they're not squashed on landing then they're pretty easily squashed under your shoes.   In fact it's probably far more dangerous for your own people to collect the scorpions than for the people you're throwing them at.

Nothing like a bit of nice carnage to keep the masses entertained.   This delightful scene is located at one end of the wall which you saw earlier and commemorates the Egyptian crossing of the Suez canal during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.   The Israelis had held the eastern bank of the canal since seizing it during the Six Day War in 1967, and erected huge sand banks on their side of the canal to slow down any Egyptian attack.   The Egyptians surprised everyone by making a very ingenious and rapid breakthrough of these defenses and overwhelming the Israeli defenders, however soon afterwards the Egyptian attack completely lost momentum and they had to fall back to their own side of the canal.   However Egypt was able to claim this as a great moral victory, and it's become the main military accomplishment celebrated at this museum.

Here's a diorama showing some rather one-sided and over-stated victories by the Egyptian air force over the Israeli air force.   The current military dictator of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, is given very fulsome praise.   Part of the large brass plaque in Arabic and English says, "The history has recorded the name of the commander of air force during October war Major General Mohamed Hosny Mobarak with very shiny letters because of his good planning, organization, selection of his staff and air units commanders, and his excellancy of managing the combat missions of his forces which led to the victory and accomplish the air superiority during the days of operations".

The museum is a fun place for the whole family, a chance to let your hair down and enjoy the sights, such as these amphibious vehicles which were used to transport troops and equipment like tanks across the canal.   In the late 1950s Egypt decided to court the Russians, who were eager to establish a foothold in the Middle East, which had previously been entirely the province of the British, French and Americans.   Egypt was very successful in playing these rivals off against each other, and received a lot of financial and military assistance this way.   The Russian equipment certainly was cheaper than Western equivalents, but it wasn't as good and after the fighting with Israel had died down Egypt happily started buying American equipment with the aid money that America poured in, making Egypt the second biggest recipient of American aid money in the world, after Israel itself.   Egypt became shamelessly promiscuous in courting foreign finances - there's a sign on the wall behind here describing how the murals were put up as "a symbol of the mutual co-operation" between Hosni Mubarak and "his excellency Kim Il Sung, the president of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea", that is, North Korea!

According to the sign, this is "Ayogoslav jet Torped" produced in 1956.   I'll take that to mean that this is Yugoslav torpedo.   The head is a very interesting shape, I don't think I've seen anything like that.

I really wouldn't have bothered spending time at the museum, except that I'm interested in military aircraft.   The collection here isn't spectacular by any means, but for an avid fan like myself it's interesting enough to justify spending time here, particularly since there are plenty of other things to see within other areas of the citadel.   It's also interesting because the aircraft are all from the former Soviet bloc, so they're not types which are commonly seen in the West.

This somewhat ugly beastie is a Czech designed Zlin Z-226 "Trener", it has a six cylinder 160 horsepower engine and fixed undercarriage, and was used for training pilots.   Apparently there's also a Campbell Cricket and a Heliopolis Goumhouria around someplace, but I didn't see either of those two aircraft.

This odd-looking aircraft is a Polish designed PZL104 Wilga, which is a tough little short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft, able to lift off after a run of just 80 meters.   First developed in the 1960s, updated models were still in production until 2009.   It's so versatile that different models of the Wilga have been fitted with wheels, skis or floats, and used for applications as diverse as flying ambulances, glider tugs and agricultural chemical appliers.   It's been a very successful aircraft, with well over a thousand built, making it the most numerous Polish aircraft ever developed.

Here's a much more potent aircraft, Russia's first supersonic fighter the afterburner equipped MiG-17, which has the NATO reporting name "Fresco".   They're usually seen in pure fighter form, but this MiG-17F "Fresco C" is more interesting because it's fitted with underwing rockets and even has a couple of small bombs under its belly.   This type of aircraft entered service in Egypt in 1957, very soon after they entered production.   The MiG-17F was also used by the communist Vietnamese air force and because of its maneuverability it was quite successful against much more technologically advanced American designed fighters.   MiG-17s served on well into the 1970s with various air forces around the world, and today there are even several examples on the American airshow circuit.

You can see one of these rocket pods under the wing of this Russian designed Sukhoi Su-7 "Fitter".   Like the MiG-17, the Su-7 was originally intended as a fighter, but it proved more effective in the ground attack role.   With two 30mm cannon in the wing roots, a 1000 kilogram ordnance load and a top speed of Mach 1.6, it was a very potent machine, though as you can see the pitot tube at the front of this particular aircraft has taken quite a beating!   Like most MiGs, the Su-7 had very short range, which greatly limited its usefulness, and the afterburner took six or seven seconds to light, which could be fatal in combat conditions.