Islamic Cairo

May 12th, 2008

After having a nice breakfast in a western-style café in downtown, we took a cab to islamic cairo, to the Mosque & School of Sultan Hassan, right below the Citadel. After our first visit to a Mosque in Egypt, we tried to find the way by foot to Mosque Ibn Tulur. Basicly an easy route, a little bit south east, but somehow we got lost. And so we decided, instead of taking a cab to Ibn Tulur, to just walk around and let us suck into the tiny alleys of islamic cairo. We saw a lot of food stalls, bakerys, craftworks, markets, small mosques, and so on.. A totally different world and I really like that kind of stuff. People were looking at us like we came directly from mars. Me, 2 meters tall, Ewa (or Fatima how I call her right now) a good looking western girl.
After an hour or so, we decided to take a cab to Ibn Tulur, which is, as the locals say, one of the most beautifuls mosques in Cairo. It was a really beautiful place, whith a huge square in the inside and a tower with nice views over Cairo. But even at this holy place, they tried to charge us for everything - taking pictures, climbing up the tower, breathing, etc. But we learned our lesson and kept our wallets closed. If somebody is complaining, just get the tourist police. They’re just everywhere.

After visiting the Mosque Ibn Tulur, we took a cab to Al Hussein, the place between the Khan Al-Khalili bazaar and the Al-Azhar Mosque. Equipped with a skarf for Ewa we took a few pictures of the beautiful mosque and headed north to the famous market of Khan Al-Khalili. More on that soon.

Pictures of the day: