CAIRO - The Egyptian Post Office Museum in Attaba recalls the days when people relied on pigeons, camels and boats to transport their mail over many centuries. To imagine what the former postal system was in Egypt, and other countries as well, take a fascinating journey into the Egyptian Post Office Museum, established in 1934, when motorised vehicles had started to play their role. The modern Egyptian postal service began when Carlo Meratti, an Italian living in the coastal city of Alexandria, established a post office to send and receive mail to and from foreign countries as early as 1821. Meratti took the responsibility of sending and distributing the letters for a given price. He later expanded his activities to Cairo and in Alexandria through his office in Saint Catherine Square (formerly Qansal Square) Alexandria. After Meratti's departure his nephew, Tito Chini (who understood the importance of the project) succeeded his uncle with a friend, Giacomo Muzzi. The two partners upgraded the business, naming it the Europea Posta. The post office began by sending, receiving and delivering correspondence from both the government and individuals, and the Europea Posta soon gained the public's trust. At the inauguration of the first railway between Alexandria and Kafr el-Zayyat in 1845 the company established branches in Cairo and Rashid (Rosetta), followed by another two branches (in Damanhour and Kafr el-Zayat) in 1855. When the railway was extended from Kafr el-Zayat to Cairo (via Tanta, Benha and Birket Essaba), the company exploited this opportunity and used the railways to carry the post between Cairo and Alexandria for a five-year contract beginning in January 1856. The contract was a monopolistic franchise to transport the post to northern Egypt, where it stipulated a fine to be paid to the Europea Posta by anyone who was caught pilfering mail. Khedive Ismail (ruled from 1863-79) realised the importance of the Europea Posta and purchased it from Muzzi (after the departure of his partner, Tito Chini) in 1864. The Egyptian government offered Muzzi the position of general manager of the company and on January 2, 1865, the private Europea Posta was transferred to the Egyptian government. This date is marked as Post Day. During King Fouad's reign (1917-1936), a new department of communication responsible for telephone, telegraph and postal services was established, which included the transport sector such as railways, airways, waterways and roadways. He established the current Postal Museum in 1934 in Attaba Square, Central Cairo. It was opened to the public in 1940 on the second floor at the Central Post Office, with its fine architecture and open courtyard. In Fouad's era, the first postal stamp was printed in Arabic and also printed in Egypt rather than in England and Holland. In the 1930s, Egypt was the innovator in new printing techniques, the ‘bleed off', apparently annoying the European print-houses, which took ten years to master the technique. Over the years, the collection grew from a stamp exhibition to one that highlights communications from Pharaonic times and demonstrates the development of Egypt's postal service through the centuries. The Post Office Museum contains hundreds of exhibits arranged in sections – the history of communications, transport, postal equipment, local and foreign stamps, uniforms, postal buildings, paintings, rare letters and maps. The visitor will find there unusual ways deployed by other nations for sending mail, such as coconuts used by Indians to deliver messages by emptying the nut of its contents and putting their message inside, sealing the coconut and throwing it into the sea. There is a section for various means of transport, in which there are models made from gypsum or wood, such as of ships used to carry mail between Egypt and other countries like Carthage, including the first boat, which passed through the Suez Canal. Land transport included horse-drawn carriages, driven by dedicated men who bore the extremes of weather in order to do their jobs to deliver the mail. There are also models of carrier pigeons, camels and horses that bore messages and old post offices. A section on mail boxes contains those that were used in Cairo streets in 1866. There are also leather bags with huge locks reflecting how the postman took care of his mail. Seals are also displayed, some of which used in 1865 for memorial events, while others were European before the post office was Egyptianised. Exhibited as well are the uniforms designed for the post men over the era for both the seasons of summer and winter. Maps, documents and graphs explaining the development of the post service in Egypt are also on display. The development of airmail is demonstrated including the different kinds of planes, air balloons and the famous carrier pigeons. The stamp collections reflect the political and cultural history of Egypt and its rulers, where the visitor will see the Egyptian stamps from the start of their use in 1866 and all the different issues over the years - standard, commemorative, governmental and airmail - designed by skillful and imaginative artists. This section also includes a collection of foreign stamps from the Universal Postal Union, the United Nations specialised agency for the postal sector. An intriguing huge picture is made from 15,000 stamps representing the Giza pyramids and Sphinx, dating back to 1910. In the museum there are many striking paintings of Egyptian rulers King Fouad, King Farouk, Mohamed Ali Pasha and Khedive Ismail. The Egyptian Post Museum, located on the second floor the Central Post Office, Attaba Square. It is open daily from 8:00am to 2:30pm except for Fridays and Saturdays. Entrance tickets cost LE2 for Egyptians and non-Egyptians.
