Cairo, mosques and citadels

Walking through town we were again struck by how hospitable and welcoming Egyptians were. So many cries of "welcome!" everywhere we walked. Whenever we told people this later they inevitably said "oh, they only wanted to sell you..." or something similar. That really wasn't the case. Total strangers walking down the street or driving by in cars with absolutely no desire to sell us anything were just shouting greetings as they passed by. It was weird, but nice. Of course we did meet some really persistent touts, and some stall owners would even go as far as grabbing my arm and not letting go for quite some time, but as long as you took it all with a smile it never became wearing.



We came across two giant mosques that I first mistook for the citadel we were looking for. Massive crenellated walls, imposing structures.

The first was all soaring arches and high ceiling, dark and quiet. Quite beautiful. A robed guy called us over and led us through several locked doors to various ornate tombs. He seemed very scornful of the tip we left him.

The second was equally large, more famous but not as impressive to my untrained eye. It featured a large open courtyard and four adjoining prayer/teaching spaces.

Koshari lunch, cheap and filling. I just noticed I spelt that differently from my last blog. There's no 'correct' English spelling for anything in Arabic, and official and unofficial signage throughout the region reflects this.

The Citadel of Salah Al-Din is right next door, but it was a surprisingly long, hot slog around to the entrance. The first entrance we tried seemed to be a prison, but at least they let Hozumi use their toilet.

The central mosque has the highest minarets, visible from all around the city, and a blobby structure that doesn't look quite right.

Inside, we sprawled out on the carpets and admired the dome ceiling and chandeliers. Lights are strung all across the room in circular patterns that must look quite amazing at night if all of them are lit.

The military museum was dull, but interesting in a strange way because so much of it was roped off and unlit. Whole rooms of complete displays skipped for no reason we could discern, except maybe in order to keep a huge number of people moving along in a single direction. The fact that the whole place was deserted made it even weirder.

That evening Hozumi tried her first sheesha and pronounced it good.