Day Nine: Cairo, Salah El Din, Coptic Museum, Khan El Khalili

On the ninth day, our last full day in Egypt, I woke up feeling like a human being again, instead of like some simian who would soon be the focus of a manhunt led by Dustin Hoffman.

To be honest, this was my least favorite day of the trip - it focused on the Christian, Muslim and Jewish history of Old Cairo and it wasn't terrifically interesting to me. We went to see the Citadel of Salah El Din - built in 1183 a.d. Notice my terrifying pallor. I was so heavily medicated that for two weeks AFTER we got back from Egypt, I was dizzy. SMILE!

Within the Citadel we visited the An Nasser Muhammed Mosque, and the Muhammed Ali Mosque, (no relation), which is a copy of the Ottoman Mosques of Istanbul (not Constantinople). They were both beautiful. Fair warning though, when visiting a mosque as a woman you MUST be covered from your knees to your upper arm. If you aren't, you will be given a very creepy green robe to wear, and who knows where they have been. We saw a bunch of women draped in horrible green robes and they skeeved us so hardcore it wasn't even funny. So if you're visiting mosques, take my advice and cover up.

First we visited the An Nasser Muhammed Mosque.

Then we stopped by the courtyard outside of the Muhammed Ali Mosque - where the purification fountain stands and also the clock from King Louis Phillipe of France (which has NEVER worked, ever) that he gave to Egypt in exchange for the gift of the Obelisk that I mentioned in an earlier post and which now stands in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

When visiting the mosques be prepared also with some baksheesh for the men who guard your shoes while you explore...

The Muhammed Ali Mosque:

View of Cairo from the Citadel

After the Citadel we traveled to see the ruins of the old fortress of Babylon, the Coptic Museum, the Abu Serga church where the little baby Jesus was supposed to have hidden with his parents from King Herod, and the oldest Synagogue in Egypt.

On the way there, we passed this.

It is clearly a Stargate. According to my friend Scott, it's one of the ones built by the Nox. How it got to Egypt is a total mystery. Horribly, I found it more interesting than I did the church and synagogue. This is because I'm a bad person. Or alternatively because I am way too into SciFi programming.

No photos allowed inside either, so you'll have to settle for the signage...

Also the Coptic Museum, where I gently stewed about how irritated the Coptic Christians had made me throughout our trips to the temples. Bloody graffiti artists.

Also, the Fortress of Babylon (or what is left of it)

Then it was time for lunch. On our way to the Khan El Khalili, (the real one, not the one at the hotel on the Giza Plateau), we passed the City of the Dead.

It's a funny story. And by funny I mean strange and/or vaguely creepy. The City of the Dead is a HUGE cemetery - and to prevent robbers etc the living members of the family hired guards to dwell in the cemetery and watch over their family's tombs...well the guards got married, had kids, and eventually an entire living community existed inside the cemetery, on top of and next to the dead. Wild.

We arrived at the Khan-el-Khalili where we fought and elbowed our way to our restaurant - a sister restaurant to the one at the Mena House Oberoi Hotel...(and also delicious).

After eating it was off to the market. The Khan El Khalili is one of the oldest, and largest, marketplaces in the world. It is a maze of narrow passageways, thronged with locals and tourists alike, and filled with shops selling anything you can imagine.

A very cool way to spend our last afternoon in Egypt...but the day wasn't over yet! We still had shopping to do!

We all wanted to get some papyrus - and you cannot trust the papyrus you buy in the streets because by and large it is made from banana leaves and not the genuine article. This is because for the most part farmers have stopped farming papyrus. It requires the same growing conditions as sugar cane but doesn't command the same price, so it's not a popular crop to grow. The government has stepped in and taken over production of it, so the only places you can be certain of getting real papyrus are government-controlled shops. Like the one we went to.

Learning about Papyrus...

After buying entirely too much papyrus we retreated to the hotel. We needed to take stock and figure out what else we had to get before catching our flight in the morning.

We ventured out to visit the small mall at the Nile Hilton but apart from purchasing some perfume (called, hilariously, Ra) that journey was a bust. Although while walking down one of the aisles at the Nile Hilton I was offered The Cheesiest Egyptian Pickup Line Ever which sort of made it all worthwile...to wit: "Hey! Nice cartouche..."

*groan*

It was also at the Nile Hilton that a shop owner gussied me up in a belly-dancer's costume but I'm not putting those pictures up here. We returned to the hotel, ate a light dinner, and went to glorious sleep. The next morning we were up bright and early to bid farewell to our guide, our driver, and Egypt.