Our second day in Cairo started out just like the first. Breakfast in the hotel, and meeting our guide Muhammad, who by this point was set on converting us to Islam. He brought it up at least 12 times and even bought us Arabic to English translations of the Qur’an. If you’re Muslim, and you convert someone, you’re almost guaranteed to go to Paradise.
Anyway, we went first to the citadel, overlooking all of Cairo. We saw the prison there, and the military side. It was interesting to see the security measures in place at the time, but the mosques were much nicer to look at. El-Naser Mohamed mosque was the first mosque in Cairo. It was made with stolen pieces, so the windows are all slightly different, as well as parts of the pillars. It was really cool though, and we learned how all mosques are set up. There’s a curved spot in the front so the Imam leading the prayer can be heard in back, or his echo can, there’s an open area for praying and facing Mecca and Saudi Arabia, and there’s a balcony in back to lead the people outside. There are a lot of other features, but those are the most important. The second mosque, the Mosque of Mohammed Aly, was incredibly beautiful. It was built in 1830 AD, modeled after the Sultan Ahmet mosque in Turkey, (which we’re going to see in a week!). The painting and decoration is so intricate, and the lamps lighting the inside give a magical glow. Mohammed Aly’s tomb is in the mosque also. Next we went to the Hanging Church, or Saint Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, also in old Cairo. It is called the hanging church because it is above the gates to Babylon Fortress, and ancient fortress city for the royal family. It is one of the earliest churches in Egypt, built in the 3rd century AD. The Ben Ezra Synagogue is near the Coptic Church, so we went there as well. It’s located on the site where baby Moses was found, according to the local tradition.
One of the best things we did in Cairo was go to the Khan Khalili bazaar. It’s a narrow street packed with stands and shops and hundreds of people weaving through and yelling and pushing. I heard “hey Barbie!” and “blondie!” way too many times, but it was worth it for all the good deals we got. It turns out Brianna and I are fantastic bargainers. We got everything for about 30 percent of the price they asked, which is really good. People told us before we went that they obviously overcharge foreigners, but if we could get to 50 percent we’d be good, but that the real price was probably 20-30 percent, so we were very happy with ourselves. I think it helped that we knew Arabic numbers and once we asked for a price in Arabic they didn’t think they could rip us off as much. We bought eight scarves, t-shirts, perfume, glass bottles, all for less than $40. I want to go back!
After that, we ate Kushree, the traditional Egyptian dish. It’s really good, made with rice, macaroni, lentils, tomatoes, and a spicy sauce.
We went to the Egyptian Museum last. This is one of the coolest things we did, but sadly, pictures are not allowed. This is terrible because I don’t think it’s possible to explain how amazing it was! It has ancient statues, mummies, tombs, and an entire floor dedicated to King Tutankhamun. His was the only tomb ever found intact, all other tombs had already been raided by the time people started looking for them. His tomb was impressive, one of the most decorated and protected. He had a solid gold casket, inside another one, and another and another, to protect his body. Then there were gifts and offerings and things to protect him and keep him happy in the afterlife. Chairs, statues, jewelry…the jewelry was so pretty, and so detailed it’s hard to imagine how it was made then. We saw the solid gold headdress put on King Tutankhamun when he was buried. It’s extremely protected in the museum, and for good reason. The most amazing thing was that because he died so suddenly and so young, (he fell off a chariot), all of this was made in a very short amount of time. It seemed like each piece would have taken forever to make, it’s unbelievable that everything in the entire floor, which is like six rooms, was made in such a short time. Each artifact, and each painted chair, bed, box and jars holding his insides, statues of gods to protect him was incredible. And in really good shape for being so old. I wish we could have taken pictures!!
We were exhausted by the end of the day, and came back to the hotel to drink smoothies in the hotel café, Skype, and sleep.
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