Cairo - Part Two

Today was spent doing a lot of walking (to prepare for Kili) and sight-seeing.  First we visited the Egyptian Museum, which is huge and has a lot in it but not many explanations of anything.  The best thing about it was definitely the King Tut exhibit which was a fairly complete collection.  It was also in the only air conditioned room in the entire museum, and it was a very large museum.  The animal mummy room was also pretty neat, crocodiles, dogs, fish, bulls, horses, etc. all found mummified and now on exhibit.  After spending about 3 hours in the museum we decided to do some walking and go to Islamic/Medieval/Old Cairo.  One thing we learned really quick here is how to ‘Walk like an Egyptian’ which according to the man standing next to us means ‘Just close your eyes and pray to Allah’ as you cross through 6 lanes of traffic with people honking and buses coming at you. 

After walking through the streets to get there we finally made it to Islamic Cairo.  Islamic Cairo is the part of Cairo surrounded by a wall, well what’s left of the wall which used to be the entire city.  We entered through Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquests) and came across a Mosque right inside the city walls.  As we were sitting outside the Mosque resting, one of the men inside came out and invited us in.  We took our shoes off, Lisa got a head wrap, exchanged some money and got to spend some time in there.  It’s amazing how quiet and peaceful it is in the Mosque in the middle of the crazy of the city.  After spending some time in there we left the Mosque and continued to walk down the cobble stone streets to find the al-Salih Tala'i' Mosque.  On our way there we stopped by Bab an-Nasr (Gate of Victory) to take some photos and then reentered and continued on our journey. To get to the Mosque we walked through Wikala al-Bazara which is basically a road of little shops all along the side selling odds and ends of all sorts.  Locals are not nearly as bad as Giza but we had one tell Lisa she had beautiful eyes (Dave thinks the boy was talking to him) and another tell us ‘What kind of tourists are you?’ and ‘Why visit here if you won’t talk to us’ because we wouldn’t talk to him and waste our money on something he wanted to sell us.  After making it through there without spending any money (except for buying a Coca Cola) we made it to the al-Salih Tala'i' Mosque.  It was prayer time when we got there so we didn’t worry about going in, we just took some photos from the outside and headed home.  

Overall it was a good last full day in Cairo.  Tomorrow we are off to Dar Es Salam and will continue our trip from there.  

Our boots after a day in Cairo

Egyptian Museum

Outside the museum

Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquests)

Inside the Mosque

Inside the Mosque

Bab an-Nasr (Gate of Victory)

Islamic Cairo

al-Salih Tala'i' Mosque