Cairo: Day One

Over the Easter weekend Ben and I headed to Cairo for a mini vacation. Ben was working in Jordan so he flew from Amman and we met up at the Cairo airport and took a taxi to our hotel. Just like a lot of our vacations this was a last minute trip so I didn’t have a lot of time to plan, but as we were only there for three whole days I figured we could probably just stick with the main tourist attractions. Our first full day there we explored Coptic Cairo, the Citadel, and The Egyptian Museum. We booked a tour guide to take us around, Doaa, and she was amazing. She has been a tour guide in Cairo for over 15 years and was able to explain not only the ancient history, but the current history and that state of the economy and government.

Our first stop in Coptic Cairo was The Hanging Church. It is called the hanging church as it is built on the foundation of previous churches so when you look through the windows it appears as though the church is suspended in the air. There has been a church on this site since the 3rd century. It is also the seat and official residence of the Coptic Pope. Doaa was keen in showing us pictures of a dozen or so Egyptian presidents with the Coptic Pope's, explaining that there is a good relationship between the government and the Christians. Notably there was no picture with Morsi, and the coptics were in full support of the coup that removed him from power. 

We then headed to the Church of St. George which is a greek orthodox church located right next to The Hanging Church. The church was built on the foundation of a Roman round tower, thus giving the church its shape. 

Some ladies asked to take a photo with me here. I obliged thinking how funny to want a picture with me and even had Ben take of photo. My feelings of having my photo taken will change by the end of this day...

I thought the robot hand were kinda creepy. 

Egypt is mostly Sunni Muslim, but four percent of the population is Coptic Christian. This is mostly an older generation. There are less than fifty Egyptian Jews living in Cairo. Our guide keep reiterating how Egyptians are tolerant of all religions and how the Koran teaches that one must respect everyone and the way that they worship.

While we were in Coptic Cairo we also went to a church that held a room where Mary and Joseph stayed with Jesus when Kind Harod ordered all the first born Jewish children killed. It was under construction so we just took a peek inside.

This is the room that Mary, Joesph, and Jesus stayed it. I love how they have put barrels and barbwire and what not in the room while they are restoring both it and the church that it is located in. 

After Coptic Cairo we headed to The Citadel and the mosque of Mohammed Ali, the father of modern Egypt.

Let me take this time to mention that there were tourists everywhere that we went but the majority of them were Egyptian or from the middle east. At the citadel we were the only ‘western’ tourists and this created a small issue. Everywhere we went kids and women would come up to me and ask to have a picture with me. People were taking pictures of me and Ben as we were walking around, and while we were sitting in the mosque, a group of 30 children and their teacher came up and asked for a picture and then surrounded us until mosque security came up and told them to stop harassing us. This was the first time I had felt self-conscious about being dressed as a westerner while in a Muslim country. Ben asked our guide if she had an extra hijab that she could bring the following day, and she so kindly bought me a new scarf, which I did use a few times.

So back to the citadel. The citadel was a fortress built in the 12th century. It was the seat of the government and the residence of the rulers until the 19th century. In the picture above the mosque of Mohammed Ali, and he is actually buried inside. This mosque is more of a tourist spot than a prayer spot so there is no need to cover your head when you go inside. But we still had to take off our shoes. Due to the taking off of the shoes, all mosques we went into smelled like feet, but at least the floor is clean? Not really, but at least it is respectful. 

Oh hey, more people taking a picture with me. This was only half of the group, the other half was taking photos. It got worse after this and we stopped taking photos as we were just trying to get out of the crowd. Our tour guide was very nice and kept telling people to stop taking photos and to be more respectful. 

The main courtyard of the Mohammed Ali Mosque 

Bare feet! 

The citadel is situation on a hill so you have a lovely view of Ciaro. Greater Cairo has a population of around 20 million, most cars are over 10 years old, there a lot of garbage burning, little regulation on manufacturing, and being in the dessert leads to the lovely gray colour of the air and the lack of visibility. 

Here is our tour guide Doaa. I was happy to take a picture with her :)

 Our last stop for the day was The Egyptian Museum. This museum is located On Tahir Square which is where all the protests took place during the Arab spring in 2011. The museum was amazing. It was kind of overwhelming with the amount of stuff that they have but everything is original except the Rosetta Store, which is a replica. The original is located here in London. They would like it back but realize that more people can see it in London and that it is a good way to promote interest in Egypt.  

The oldest collection in the Museum is about 4660 years old. The newest stuff is around the time the Romans conquered Egypt, around 100BC. 

Dibs on the top bunk! 

One of the coolest things the museum has is a lot of the artifacts found in King Tut's tomb. These include many of the sarcophagus he was placed in, and the golden mask that covered the mummies head. Unfortunately you can't take photos of a lot of it.  

 By this time we were quite tired from a day of site seeing so I got us a taxi and we headed back to the hotel. We went to a delicious restaurant where we had mezze and grilled meats for dinner.