Cairo

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We have been a week in Cairo and will be taking a 12hour train to Aswan tonight. Cairo is a bustling place and Downtown Cairo where we have been staying is particularly busy - like pre-Christmas week on Oxford St all over again, but this is 24/7! And the traffic...sheesh, complete madness.

No one stops at traffic lights and the weirder thing is nobody switches on their headlights in the evening, or if they do, they keep it on very low. We are not sure if there is a law against switching on your headlights or maybe they think they can give their car that little bit more oomph by not using their lights. Most of the cars look like they are on the cusp of expiring so our theory may be closer to the truth than we realise. Almost all the cars one sees on the road are battered-up Peugeots circa 1964, and unsurprisingly, because of the way people drive, there are very few cars without dings and dents. Egypt is a garage owner's dream city.

Rob and I have been exploring various parts of Cairo - Islamic Cairo, or Fatimid Cairo as they tell the Western tourists in order to not put them off their visit, Coptic Cairo and of course, the ancient sites in Giza and Saqqara. It's been fascinating, particularly Islamic Cairo where there are some incredible monuments from the time of Salahadin, the Umayyads, Fatimids and the Mamluks.

There are some newly- restored, very sanitary-looking tourist attractions in the old quarter (mosques and beautiful merchant houses)but in the main most of the monuments we have visited are living monuments and are still being used as they have been for centuries.

The pyramids and tombs are of course in a league of themselves and have to be seen. Unfortunately, we did things the wrong way around - trying to do both Saqqara and Giza on the same day. The Giza Pyramids are the well-known ones and Saqqara is less well-known but it does have the oldest pyramid and some amazing tombs and warrants a whole day's visit. We ran out of time and only saw a small area in Saqqara. And we liked what we saw. Our consolation is that we will probably see even more amazing things in Aswan and Luxor. It only gets better!

Incredibly, we have not had any problems with touts hassling us - the usual complaint that most tourists have with Egypt. We suspect it has something to do with us looking rather more scruffy than the busloads of well-dressed European and Asian tourists clambering from big airconditioned tour buses. Anyway, we are not complaining!

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Photos

Mosque of Aqsunqur, Islamic Cairo
This, for us, was one of the most beautiful of the Mamluk mosques in Islamic Cairo

Domed ceiling of the Muhammed Ali Mosque, The Citadel
This mosque is a smaller version of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul and was thought of as 'vulgar'when it was first built.

Downtown Cairo
Every night is 'late-night shopping' in Cairo. Sharia Muski is the place to go for the locals.

You-know-what, Giza
As some local wag said, "Very big. Very old".

You-know-what (again), Giza
Spot the Sphinx - he's really quite tiny in comparison to you-know-what.

Comments

[Carine (French Aminata's friend if you remember me!!!)]

Memories...
Lovely pictures, it brought memories back to me as I went to Egypt last December, the best holiday ever so far...thanks for sharing it with us, your website is great!

[Tweedledeedums]

Re Carine
Of course we remember you Carine. Hope things are going well for you. Thanks for your nice comments and glad you enjoyed the blog.