Egypt: Cairo (Day 4)

My saviour came in the form of a man called Ahmed. I walked up to the Sheraton Hotel for a real coffee that morning, deciding to get a taxi from that hotel where they understood english words like ‘museum’ and ‘palace’. And there I found Ahmed. Not only did he have brilliant english (which is a very poor base by which to judge anyone, but man it helps), he did not try to seduce, marry or over-compliment me, and therefore became my guide for a day. Ah, why not.

Ahmed and I first travelled south of Cairo to the Coptic district or ‘Old Cairo’ (Misr Al-Qadimah) where he waited while I wandered around what was Babylon, constructed by Trajan at the beginning of the 2nd Century BC and conquered by Arabs upon their arrival in 640 AD. Within the Roman fortress I visited the Hanging Church (Al-Muallaqa) constructed in the 7th Century as well as the Greek Orthodox Church of Mari Girgis (Saint George) and the church of St Sergius (Abu Serga) which was built in the 3rd or 4th Century at the site where they Holy family rested on their travels through Egypt.

The coptic museum was also within the walls of old Cairo, and I was surprised to see the modern layout and glass protection of each item, each labelled in Eglish, Fench and Arabic. Did the Catholic church’s money have anything to do with it, in comparison to the Egyptian museum, I wondered? Likely so. In any case, it was enjoyable few hours and I met Ahmed back at the car with a ‘where to next?’

We drive in crazy traffic for about 15 mins before arriving at the Citdel, the largest in the world, containing mosques and museums within the stone walls. The Alabaster Mosque (or Mohammed Ali Mosque) was the most magnificent of these – built in 1824 in a style similar to mosques in Istanbul with beautifully decorated ceilings 83m tall – I walked around marvelling at the architechture before crossing the road to admire the two mosques on the square of Saladin, Mosque-Madreassa of Sultan Hassan and Al-Fifai Mosque before driving past Mohammed Ali’s Palace and the Cairo cemetary (City of the Dead) with a quick visit to the marketplace of Khan Al Khalili.

It was well worth the taxi fare and tip I paid Ahmed at the end of the day, and I felt that even if I did nothing but read and sit in the hotel for the rest of the week, at least I can say I had well and truly seen Cairo.

-Sarah