Coptic Cairo, The Souk, and The Citadel of Saladin

I think on reflection that a day off between what has gone before, and this day's sightseeing would have been a good idea..... Coptic Cairo is around about the original Cairo before the Nile moved west. The architecture here is a bit of a hotch potch as it was influenced by the Romans, Greeks, Ottomans.... You name it, and there are more Christian churches than you can poke a stick at, and a fair number of mosques as well. The churches date back to when Egypt was a majority Christian country.

I am going to let the pictures do the talking here..... 

There are some interesting doorways, I like door ways because I always want to know what is on the other side of them... Possibly the most notable of the churches are The Hanging Church which is not hanging as much as it used, The Church of St. George, and a visit to Ben Ezra Synagogue is also a must... Nearby is the original ''Old Bazaar in Cairo'', and also The Citadel of Saladin who always seemed to be in TV programmes and films about the Crusades.

This is a busy day and you are going to need a good strong cup of coffee....


There are a fair amount of Roman ruins around as well which are worth a picture or two.

And I must be honest trying to do this amount in a day is difficult, depending on your level of interest I would say that two days might just about be enough, particularly if you wanted to visit a couple of the other mosques.

Sorry to say, but I would have liked to spend more time digging around in the souk and a bit less time in the churches, but there you go. 

There is also a Coptic Museum which I found out afterwards is also well worth a visit!!

 I mentioned somewhere that there is a certain amount of dust and rubbish floating around, here is a typical side street in Cairo......

But finally we get to the souk and even the cats are having mid morning coffee...

And I get to go to  just about the oldest cafe in Cairo, El Fishawy has been in business for 200 years, much frequented by famous people such as King Farouk and Roger Moore. The coffee is of course Turkish coffee, and throughout Egypt they call it that. A hangover from the Ottoman Rulers no doubt. (In Greece we call exactly the same thing Greek coffee)

The souk is a busy place with lots of things going on, and some interesting architecture to boot. During our coffee break there is a ''brochure'' sitting on the table detailing a new property development somewhere on the outskirts of Cairo, I forget the actual name of it, but thought it was a bit of an odd name considering the surrounding area is desert, but I ask Jesus about the vast unfinished complexes I have seen. It seems that many of them are developments by families, each member of which has a share in it, the number of shares depending on how much money they have put it into it. So one person may own more than one apartment in the building, and might complete their part of it before anybody else, which is why you see one finished apartment on the 10th floor when nothing else is finished. It seems there is also a tax reason as nobody pays tax until the who;e lot is finished but as usual the government is being mean about it and now passes laws to make people pay the tax before it is finished! Much like Greece except that I mention the legality of buildings, many of which in Greece are still not legal. The difference here is that the government insist they are pulled down and cannot be rebuilt. Now there's a good idea.

We take a wander around the souk and I find some interesting things to take pictures of..... 

While my guide is getting a bit tetchy because we are running behind schedule, and there is me thinking I have got him trained!!

But we are off to the Citadel, which if nothing else, gives some fine, although slightly smoggy, views across Cairo. 

In the surrounding grounds of the Citadel the are some fine examples of Egyptian topiary which they seem to be very fond of, I am not sure where this originates but I am guessing they inherited it from the Ottomans...

The mosque is an imposing edifice, and well worth a look inside. There are a lot of mosques, nearly as many mosques in Egypt as there are churches in Greece, and the are still building more, the sound of the call to prayer in the evening is quite haunting, especially when you are hearing it from severl directions at once.

The photo outside the mosque makes me look fat........ A couple of months after this photo was taken I was rushed to hospital in an ambulance, initially they thought it might be a pulmonary infection but it wasn't, however it put paid to any flying for twelve months....

Tomorrow is a day off from sightseeing...... And I bid farewell to my guide for the last four days with the promise that I will give him a good review on TA and a handsome tip for him and the driver.....