Places in Cairo

Cleverly rhymed with my previous faces post, here is another potpurri, this time of places I've been to and things I've seen. Way too many photos here but what can you do with all this interesting stuff?


In Garbage City or Muqattam there are mainly poor Copts living, and they collect garbage and recycle it to get by. This kid was throwing empty plastic bottles in a pile behind him.


They also had a lot of pigs roaming about in the trash. Maybe an incentive to stay away from that next Maison Thomas pizza with real ham. Or the reason why it tastes so good. :-)


Kids are the same everywhere though.


Lonely chair in Al-Azhar park with Citadel backdrop. The park has become a standard destination for me now whenever I get visitors.


Praying in front of the mihrab, the incision in the wall indicating the qibla, or direction of Mecca. This one is inside the Al-Azhar mosque.


The view from my balcony at night time. You can actually see the Nile in three different locations, even if only one part is visible here.


You can see the pyramids too. Look closely just to the left of the minaret!


For 3eed al-Adha it is customary for families to buy and slaughter a sheep, and then feast on it. I took this photo of some guys sitting on a neighboring rooftop dissecting the various delicacies of the sheep. Knowing about this tradition, it is a mystery how they could be so stupid as to execute Saddam Hussein on the first day of this feast. You would think at least some of Bush's advisors would have realized the symbolism invoked by it. But I guess it has became fairly clear by now that no lessons are ever learnt from previous mistakes in that administration. Go Barack, that's what I say!


After the sheep are slaughtered, people put their hands in the blood and make these symbols on walls, cars, etc. for good luck and to protect against evil.


Detail of the entrance to the Al-Azhar mosque.


Another detail from Midan Hussein.


This shot is from north of Khan el-Khalili, the big tourist bazaar of Cairo.


Another guy praying alone, only birds watching, this time inside the Al-Hakim mosque north of the Khan as well, close to Bab el-Futuh.


The umbrellas of the Hussein mosque. This mosque is off-limits to non-muslims, so I have never been inside, but when it is hot outside and there are a lot of people praying, typically during the Friday prayer, these umbrellas open up so that people can stay in the shadow beneath them.


Eerie sunset shot from one cloudy evening.


Girl standing on a rock in the artificial lake of the Al-Azhar park.


The Citadel at nighttime.


Detail of some really impressive bone and wood work from a wall inside the Hanging Church of Coptic Cairo.


Harry Potter visiting the Amr Ibn Al-Ass mosque in Coptic Cairo.


Fruit market downtown off of Talat Harb street.


The intricately painted roof of the Ottoman mosque of Muhammed Ali inside the Citadel.


The small but beautiful mosque that noone ever goes to visit inside the Citadel as well.


Bab Zuweila viewed from inside the tentmaker's street in Islamic Cairo.


Beautifully lit facades of the Rifai and Sultan Hassan mosques close to the citadel. It is really nice to sit here, sip a karkadee or a coffee and listen to to prayer calls at sunset.


Guy watering his vegetables in the street.


Harry Potter threw a spell and turned into Valentina again. But who would have thought she was as tall as the pyramids??


The Sphinx, desperately staring into the nothingness of time.


The Pyramids, not as easy to get into as you might think. :-)


Two camels find eachother on the vast desert plains.


Birds, camels, pyramids, whatever. :-)


Run, Forrest, run!!


You can get some nice sunset shots of the pyramids from the terrace of this little coffee shop just right of the KFC by the Sphinx entrance.


Detail of a lamp hanging inside the Rifai mosque.


Amazingly decorated ceiling in there as well..


I went into the Gayer-Andersson museum next to the Ibn Tulun mosque for the first time. It's this wonderful old house where a British soldier with a fancy for old Egyptian things decided to rescue as much as he could from neighboring houses that were being demolished and in the end he had this amazing collection that you can see in the museum.


Just one of the many impressive rooms. I wouldn't mind having a house like this one..


And there was so much mashrabiyya everywhere, the "nets" carved out of wood, even with intricately made inscriptions in Arabic like here.


His humble little terrace where he liked to sit in the summer and have tea.


Finally a shot from the bar just under the revolving restaurant of the Grand Hyatt. This is a great place to go in the evening and share a bottle of wine. You have an excellent view of the entire city and can even see the pyramids (if they have the lights turned on that is). ;-)