Friday lunchtime we took a trip to Al Azhar Park. The streets of Cairo were almost empty of cars and we took a quick ride in a white taxi for 9LE. The Park lies on a hill between the ring road and Islamic Cairo, and was opened in 2006. Preparation for the Park involved the excavation of 800 years of rubbish as this area was a rubbish dump outside Cairo's city walls. In fact, this is the reason why Al Azhar Street rises upwards as you reach the Northern Cemetery. As the area was excavated, the old city wall was exposed and so excavations continued to a depth of 15m so that it could be fully excavated and restored. These are the walls built by Salah al-Din and so far several towers and two old city ... read more

Another hidden gem of Cairo is the "cave churches" cut into the Muqattam Hills limestone. On the outskirts of Cairo beyond the Salah Salem Ring Road, is where much of the city's rubbish is collected and sorted. A town has built up here, known as Manshiyet Nasr or Medinet iz-Zabaleen (Rubbish collectors' City). Some history: When Christian Egypt was invaded by Islamic armies in 940AD, Egyptian Christians who did not convert had to pay a tax for the privilege of living as Christians within an Islamic society. As a result, many Christians became poor slum dwellers, collecting and sorting garbage and onselling recyclables to make a living. Although Muslims are forbidden to eat pork or keep pigs, the Christians supplemented their income by raising pigs on food scraps. Although there are several "garbage cities" in Cairo, ... read more

When thinking of Egypt, you are unlikely to think of churches or Christianity, but with an estimated 10% of Egyptians being Christian, this means there's a good 8 million of them. Tradition holds that St Mark brought Christianity to Egypt, making his first convert in Alexandria in 45 AD. Christianity appealed to Egyptians on many levels, its message of resurrection offering ordinary folk eternal life that was previously available only to those who could afford elaborate funerary rituals and much of its symbolism fitted the old myths and legends. Egyptian Christians became known as Copts, and with the adoption of Christianity by Constantine as the imperial religion, persecution continued as the Romans practised an orthodox faith that differed from the Copts, leading to them establishing their own Patriarchate (The Coptic Pope). The same period saw the ... read more

On one of my first visits to Egypt in 2000, I became wearied by the constant harrassment by touts and pressure to buy souvenirs, tours etc. I longed to go somewhere quiet, with no tourists, no attractions, no hassle.. somewhere I could go to recharge. As I read in my guidebook about the troubles in Middle Egypt, I wondered if that might be the place to go. Not that I was looking for trouble, but that I was looking for a place off the tourist trail. The first thing I noticed in Minya was that hardly anyone speaks English. The second was the restrictions placed on me. There were armed police stationed outside the hotel, and every time I left the hotel I found myself with an armed escort. When I tried to visit local monuments ... read more

In Egypt, forty days after a person has passed away, a memorial service is held. This is celebrated by both Copts and Muslims and is thought to be a Pharaonic custom. We took the overnight train from Cairo down to Qena, a city in Upper Egypt better known for the nearby Temple of Hathor at Dendara. It is a ten hour train ride which is not enjoyable at night as you can't see out the windows and its even less comfortable than a longhaul flight. And you don't even think of using the toilets on the train. Some Egyptians don't even try to sleep, they just play with their phone ringtones or go in the galley carriage and smoke and talk loudly and leave the carriage doors open. The most remarkable thing about Qena since our ... read more