CAIRO - FEBRUARY, 2014 - PART 3

On my third day of sightseeing in Cairo my guide, Amany Salem, said that she was going to take me to the real Cairo; the ancient Islamic area of the city. We walked through the streets and alleys, mosques and madrassas, bazaars and street markets, that the people of Islamic Cairo use in their everyday lives, far from the tourist areas of the city. We began our morning walking through the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar which dates back to the 14th century. Here, shop owners open their stores each day to sell the food, clothes, and housewares that the average Cairo resident uses every day for their families. When we began our walk the shopfronts were closed, but as the time approached 10:00 am the streets and alleys came alive, and where before there were no pedestrians, the shops opened and it was so crowded with merchandise and shoppers that you had difficulty walking through the narrow lanes. I was truly in the real city of Cairo, I did not see a single westerner all day.

The butcher shops were on the street [literally] and the cooking and heating oil were delivered by tank carts pulled by donkeys.

 As we walked through the streets we would go into the neighborhood mosques and madrassas used by the people living in that neighborhood. Although very simple, they had been in use for hundreds of years.

Egypt is a Sunni sect Islamic country, and although there were hundreds [or perhaps thousands] of Sunni mosques, there was only one Shia sect mosque in Cairo. It was a large, and quite modern, mosque located by the wall and gate of the ancient city boundaries.

When we left the old Islamic area of Cairo, we drove to the modern cosmopolitan area of Cario, along the Nile, where the 5-star hotels, restaurants and embassies are located. We took a one hour cruise on a traditional Nile sailboat, called a Felucca, along the Nile River. Although in the middle of the city it was very quiet and peaceful, and a nice respite from the hectic pace of the city.

After our short cruise on the Nile, Amany said that she wanted to take me to a real working class restaurant in the area. No tourists here, just real Egyptian food.

After a late lunch my driver returned me to my hotel in preparation for my flight to Istanbul that night. As always, one of the things that never changed about Cairo was the never ending traffic [with an occasional donkey cart thrown in.]

I enjoyed my trip to Cairo very much, even under the very difficult and potentially dangerous political situation existing in Egypt at that time. The Egyptian people were always very friendly and hospitable, and although I was obviously out of place there with very few tourists, and virtually no western tourists, the Egyptian people were always very kind and welcoming to me. I hope to return to Egypt again someday in the future when the country is again at peace, and I can travel to more areas throughout the country, and see the thousands of years of history of this remarkable land.

CAIRO - FEBRUARY, 2014 - PART 2

My second day of sightseeing began at the Citadel of Salah El Din [known by Europeans as Saladin] which is a large fortified complex on the highest hill in Cairo. Construction was completed in 1183 A.D. to protect Cairo from the Crusaders. Inside the walls of the Citadel was the Mohamed Ali Alabaster Mosque, which was modeled on the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. Again, I was the only tourist there due to the ongoing political situation in Egypt which has depleted the number of foreign tourists visiting Cairo.

From the walls of the Citadel you had a panoramic view of the original area of the city of Cairo.

From the Citadel we drove to the Coptic area of Cairo. In the early A.D.'s Egypt had become a Christian nation, and there are still many Christian [Coptic] churches in Cairo. We visited the Hanging Church [or the Church of the Virgin Mary] which was built in the 9th century over the walls of the ancient Roman fortress of Babylon. We also visited the Church of St. Ignacious which was supposedly built upon the site of a crypt where the Holy Family [Jesus, Mary and Joseph] took refuge during the end of their journey into Egypt. You could enter the crypt where Mary and Jesus took shelter during their time in Egypt. Also, we visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in Cairo, founded in the 9th century on what is claimed to be either the site of the Temple of Jeremiah, or the site where the Pharoah's daughter found the baby Moses among the reeds of the Nile River. Cairo once had a large Jewish population, but after the founding of Israel, the Jewish population moved away, and now the synagogue is a museum.

From the Coptic area of Cairo we drove to the area of the Mosque of Sayyidna al-Husayn, one of the most important in Cairo. It was built in the 19th century over the place where Husayn, one of Mohammed's grandchildren, is buried.

In the surrounding area were numerous bazaars and shopping streets. We stopped in to the
El Fishawy cafe, which is the oldest cafe in Cairo, for some snacks and beverages. A local cat decided to jump into the lap of my guide, Amany Salem, who relocated it to the nearby chair.

We ended the day at the Egyptian Museum located on the edge of Tahrir Square. Tahrir Square is the centerpoint of the ongoing protests which resulted in the overthrow of the former government in Egypt, and the site of substantial violence. The day we were there, there were no protests, but there was a large military presence on the side streets next to the museum, which opened in 1902, and which houses 5000 years of Egyptian artifacts [including the magnificent King Tut treasures.] My guide stated that normally at this time of year, which is the high season for tourism, there would be a long line waiting to get into the museum which could last for several hours. On this day there were few tourists, and we walked right in. I was the only western tourist that I saw. You were not permitted to take cameras inside the museum, and no photos were allowed inside.