The minister of antiquities tells the director of the Egyptian Museum he expects every single museum item authenticated and accounted for. Everyone knows that the museum's basement has been chock-o-full of uncatalogued objects for more than a century. The standard joke is that to clean up that basement would be the biggest archaeological project ever undertaken.
In the local coffee shop, old men readily shake hands with Jessica. In reality, any sort of physical contact with a woman they are not related to is frowned upon, or considered downright sinful, as it brings one out of the state of ritual "purity". Ahead of the next prayer time, the old guys would have to perform ablution (washing of hands, face, feet etc.) all over again. Therefore it is typically only the westernized locals who will extend a handshake to someone of the opposite sex.
Jessica greets her Egyptian driver with "Assalamu 'alaikum". In reality, many locals in Muslim countries are ambivalent about non-Muslims using this greeting. Neutral alternatives such as "Sabah al-khair" ("Good day") are a smarter option.
Showing a Cairo mosque at sunset, the Closed Captionin has "Man reciting a prayer in Arabic". What he is in fact chanting is a call to prayer, at one of the five daily prayer times.
At the start, when Jessica Fletcher is being met at Cairo Airport, her driver is holding up a sign that says "Mrs Flesher" instead of "Mrs Fletcher."
The stolen bust is referred to as the "Medina Nefertari". Unless the reference is to Deir el-Medina (which is unlikely, as that is an ancient workers' village), the viewer may assume it has to do with the holy city of Medina/Madina in Saudi Arabia. The bust would have truly had no business turning up there.
It's virtually impossible to smuggle Egyptian artifacts either in or out of Egypt - that's what Customs sees to.
The archaeologist Sally Otterburn refers to a bust of Queen Nefertari as being authenticated as at least 4000 years old. Queen Nefertari was chief wife of the nineteenth dynasty pharaoh Ramesses II, about 1250 BC, and busts of her could therefore be no older than about 3200 years old.
Jessica Fletcher is supposed to be in Egypt, yet she wears the same exact clothes as she wears in New England fall. (Wool suits, dark colors such as navy, long sleeves, complete with scarves!) In spite of not having filmed in location, she should have worn lighter clothes, in lighter colors and fabrics, to reflect the character's change of scenery.
A young woman - regardless of nationality - running around the traditional, busy old town in a Muslim country in broad daylight wearing a sexy "little black dress" revealing her bare arms and legs, not to mention ample cleavage, would most certainly get whistled at, or have her bottom pinched, or even get spat on. As usual, MSW loves to dazzle its TV audience with exotic locales, but doesn't get its cultural facts right.