We survived the streets of Cairo!

A sea of people shopping for inexpensive items of all types.

Frankly, I am more than a bit disappointed in the quality of photos today. Cairo is an awful city for pictures; the traffic, as previously mentioned is a nightmare, and whenever you see a photo opportunity, it is practically impossible to pull over. But also when you do have the time, you find yourself in a maze of streets that are so narrow and filled with overhead wires or other obstructions, which make photography all but impossible.

This ancient mosque is located at the famed City of the Dead, a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemeteries, which are inhabited by the poorest of all.

We started the day visiting Christian Cairo, where several Coptic and Orthodox churches are housed. These are all pretty ancient and biblically historical. The Cavern church, claims to have relics of the cross and from the burial site of Jesus, as well as a piece of the Virgin Mary’s girdle. Additionally, the entire Holy Family has purportedly stayed on this site, and drank the water from its well.

Coptic priests at the entrance of the Coptic Church

The interior of the Cavern Church

From the churches, we headed to the new and splendid Museum of Egyptian culture, where the highlight, without a shadow of a doubt, were 27 mummies of the Pharaohs and their sarcophagi, including that of the great Ramses II. As you would expect, photography was absolutely forbidden in the mummies’ rooms so, I have absolutely nothing of the experience to share with you. It was simply mesmerizing staring at the faces of kings that lived as far back as 5,000 years ago, and were only relatively recently discovered and excavated.

The internal organs of the mummies were taken out from the body before mummification and each was buried separately next to the mummy. Here's an organ (also mummified),in its sarcophagus.

Typical clothing of Bedouin women

Each year, a different Muslim country procures the covering for the Kaaba at the Hajj pilgrimage sight in Mecca. This was the latest Egyptian contribution.

A view from one of the Museum's windows

From here we continued on to Old Cairo, also called Islamic Cairo, with its maze of alleys and colorful shops, but also numerous ancient mosques. Please check out the short video I posted on FB, to get a more realistic taste of the experience.

Where else but in Cairo would you find a horse tied to a tractor in the city center?

A local bakery. The man looks serious, but he was actually very pleasant.

Hookahs everywhere

Cool shop

Incredible attention to detail

Enjoying a roasted corn on the cob

Candid shot of a private moment

Cairo is the City of cats (and dogs, too).

Diane shopping for Vanilla beans (with Ahmed, our guide

All along we rested several times and sipped on either tea or Turkish coffee, which is combined with cardamom and has a uniquely distinctive flavor.

For dinner we stopped at a restaurant that only saves one dish, a Cairo specialty called Koshari, which was amazing. The restaurant has four floors and is packed to the max. Here too, I provided a 45 second video which I also posted on FB.

Customers wait in line for Koshari to go.

After that, our guide bid us goodbye, and we were joined with a new guide, a very pleasant young man of 23, who took us downtown to visit the infamous Tahir Square, where the Arab Spring revolution of 2011 started. Here too, I could not take pictures with my camera because it had gotten dark and I did not bring my tripod. Those few photos I attempted to take were way too blurry to post. We stopped for a long time at an outside Shisha bar (known in the US as Hookah bar). I did enjoy another cup of Turkish coffee there, but I opted to smoke my cigar rather than the Shisha.

We then rode the hour-and-a-half back to our hotel, where I am typing this post. Tomorrow’s wake-up call is at 4:30 AM, as we have a 12-hour train ride to a new and exciting destination. Good Night, friends.