Cairo, Mad Cairo

Trip Start Mar 07, 2006
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Trip End Jun 07, 2006


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Thursday, March 9, 2006

Visit the Citadel today, built on top of a hugh piece of limestone outcrop it was home to Egypt's rulers from about 1176 when Saladin began building it to fortify the city of Cairo against the Crusaders (Think 'Kingdom of Heaven' with Orlando Bloom). It was subsequently added to by the Mamluks, the Ottomans and finally Mohammed Ali who demolished most of the previous buildings and erected a massive Turkish stype Mosque which can be seen from miles around.

Although it was extremely beautiful and impressive because of it's sheer size we like the smaller Mosque of An Nasir Mohammed, the only remaining Mamluk structure dating from the 13th Century. It was pretty much stripped of all it's marble under Ottoman rule but the remaining artwork was beautiful including intricately carved wooden panelling and inlaid alabaster mosaics in the mihrabs, niches in the wall that face Mecca.

We then walked the streets, en routeto Cairo's largest market, Khan el Khalili Bazaar. The Blue Mosque we visited on the way and while it was quite ruined you could still climb to the top of it's minaret for an amazing view all the way to Giza, our very first glimpse of the pyramids. Unfortunately it is the time of year for the khamseen, the desert wind which blows up an awful lot of dust so visibility wasn't great and not worth taking photos.

Finding the Blue Mosque proved to be an adventure in itself and we found ourselves in a very old cemetary. We discovered that there were quite a few people actually living in the cemetary amongst the graves since their homes were destroyed in an earthquake years ago.

Walking on through some very old market streets was an experience of sights with everything from carpet sellers to offal sellers and everything in between. We finally found our way to the Bazaar after a whole afternoon of walking the streets of Cairo and entered the maze of humanity that is Khan el Khalili a market so huge it is difficult to comprehend let alone try and explain.

Wandering home after the sun had gone down getting a little lost in the process, we slept like logs after a pretty hectic day.

Just have to add a note about the traffic here. It is an entity all of it's own, no lanes, traffic lights that mean absolutely nothing and horns that toot constantly and for no apparent reason. It's so chaotic but amazingly it works, road rage as we know it simply doesn't exist. So as you can no doubt imagine, crossing a busy road is not easy task and takes quite a bit of courage the first couple of times. Two options really, follow someone who is also crossing or take the plunge and step into the moving traffic which is travelling at random speeds, weaving your way to the other side of the road and hope for the best.

Needless to say you breathe a sigh of relief when you get to the other side!!
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