Cairo, Part 2

My second day in Cairo was largely spent touring key Islamic sites in the city. We began in Cairo's sprawling City of the Dead. Here, there is a four-mile-long mausoleum-filled cemetery which has been overtaken as housing by the city's poor. More than half a million people live here, amongst their dead ancestors, in the mausoleums, largely without electricity or running water. One of the most beautiful and historic mosques in the city is within the area, so my guide, his driver and I ventured in. The streets were narrow, dust-covered, and empty of automobile traffic, but we could see daily life on them. On the street, we met a man separating strands of large spools of yarn to create fine threads for use in making decorative tassels. Here is my guide, Colin, looking at one of the spools of yarn:Here, the man is separating the threads using a large spinning wheel:The threads will eventually be used to make tassels like these:Our destination was the Qaitbey Mosque:It's image is featured on the back of an Egyptian one-pound note:but it is infrequently visited because of it's location. The mosque is relatively small but beautiful inside, with incredible decorative elements. I found it interesting that this stained glass window featured a Star of David at the top -- an interesting intermingling of religious icons: This is a photo from inside the mosque looking up into its central dome high above: This is s detail from the mosque pulpit, carved from ebony and ivory: We met a woman performing restoration of some of the decorative work in the mosque's crypt. She was using tiny paintbrushes to remove dust and debris from around some mosaics: After leaving the mosque, we went to the Citadel, a fortress begun in 1168 as a city defense. It's currently a complex of at least a dozen buildings, including museums and three mosques. But from the exterior entrance, it looks a lot like Windsor Castle to me. The Citadel: and Windsor Castle: We toured the mosques......and then walked along the top of the fortress exterior walls. While there we took in the views of Cairo with the pyramids of Giza in the distance:From the Citadel, we went into the shopping bazaar area called Khan al-Khalili. From this central square......you enter a sprawling maze of alleyways filled with shops selling fabrics, spices, alabaster, and anything else you can think of: This man was inlaying tiny pieces of mother-of-pearl on a small wooden box: We went into a tiny glass blowing shop. The proprietor was so friendly; he even reworked a glass star for me, adding a hole to allow me to string a cord and hang it as a Christmas ornament: On our third day in Cairo, I spent the morning in the Egyptian Museum: which is filled with 5000-year-old artifacts, including mummies (simultaneously fascinating and creepy) and all of King Tutankhamen's treasures: In the afternoon, I was given an Egyptian cooking lesson by a local woman (center) in her kitchen. We made Baba Ghanoush, Egyptian cucumber salad, an eggplant casserole, rice & vermicelli, and a baklava-like dessert. The best part was enjoying the results; it was all delicious. I'll look forward to recreating these dishes in my own kitchen.On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a local neighborhood and walked through green grocers, fish markets, and butcher shops... At this one, the funny butcher gave me his knife for the photo...but I held it like a wimp! Clearly I'm not cut out to be a butcher (no pun intended): On our last day in Cairo D and I hung around the hotel, enjoying the sunshine on the lake promenade and lunch at the golf course clubhouse. Going into this trip I thought it might be my one-and-only opportunity to see Egypt and I wanted to experience as much as possible. I've come away from the trip hoping that I'll get to return -- there is more of Cairo and much more of Egypt that I'd like to explore.