Of all the places that I’ve ever been to on a vacation, Egypt was the only one in which I felt like I wasn’t finished. I found myself wanting to stay longer and explore more, as if I hadn’t even scratched the surface. With most places, after about two or three days I start feeling like I’m ready to go back, but Egypt was just so different in every way possible, and that might be the reason why I genuinely didn’t want to leave. It was refreshing in a very surreal way.

Friday: The City of the Dead

The poverty in Cairo is overwhelming everywhere you go, but the greatest concentration of the poorest of the poor in the city live here, in what’s known as the City of the Dead.

The City of the Dead is a graveyard, filled with Islamic-style tombstones, tombs, and mausoleums. The area is noticeably shorter than the rest of the city partially because all the tombs are less than a storey high, and partially because the overall ground level of the city has risen considerably over the past 100 years. In fact, it wasn’t uncommon to walk past a window, door, or archway that was half buried in the ground all over the city! It was just way worse here because it was even more unkempt than the rest of Cairo.

What I found the most interesting about the city was that it is actually listed in the Lonely Planet guide as well as some other tourist guides and websites as something to see, but we were definitely the only foreigners there. It was yet another example of why most people come to Cairo and what those people completely miss out on: what’s relevant to today! As I’ve said before, as cool as that ancient stuff is, it has little to nothing to do with current Cairo— which is ultimately more important.

This raises another issue. The City of the Dead is a cemetery. A rather beautiful one, I might add. However, it has also become the living space for the poorest people in Cairo. The families that literally have no money or food take shelter in random tombs. This has a bit of symbology for them. Apparently in interviews with some inhabitants, they’ve said that they might as well be (or wished they were) dead because they were so poor (I know that I should cite this, but it was told to me orally through the friend who is living there and he’s very informed and well researched). Therefore, they live in the tombs.

So what’s the issue? Well, because many tourists only visit Egypt for the Pharaonic artefacts, they sort of see the rest of modern-day Cairo as an annoyance. So they’ll go out of their way to make sure that they are as far away from the reality of poverty as possible. I think they’re missing the point. Americans in particular should care about that stuff, especially in countries where lots of their tax dollars are supposed to be helping these people and it’s obviously not.

Anyway, I thought the area was amazingly beautiful and I was surprised at how colourful it was! Lots of mustard yellows, deep pinks, bright blues, greens, you name it. And there was a lot of random writing on the walls that were usually very colourful as well. At first I thought it was graffiti, but eventually I started thinking that it was just writing on the walls from the family of the person(s) buried and memorialised there. In any case, it was quite beautiful.

There was a point in which we were mobbed by a gang of 8 year old boys, all smoking cigarettes and talking to us in Arabic with the movements and gestures of a typical Italian mobster from an American film. That was surreal, to say the least. They were really interested in the pins on my bag (and I made the grave mistake of giving one to them… they wouldn’t leave us alone for a while after that), and they kept calling us “friend” so it was truly an experience. The leader of the gang wrote out his phone number and hands it to my friend saying in Arabic, “You need something? You call me!” These kids have seen The Godfather Trilogy one too many times.

There were also many parts of the city that were so similar in look and feel to the American south west that it was seriously not funny at one point. The same colours, the same plants… It was very surreal to see a cactus plant growing out of what could’ve been a saloon from the cowboy days in Arizona or New Mexico. Still, I loved the area and I highly recommend that if you go to Cairo that you face the reality of poverty and visit it— even if only to see the tombs and the mausoleums. It’s definitely different than Pere Lachaise in Paris..

Saturday: The Citadel Overlooking Cairo

Probably the most dramatic building in Cairo, as well as the hardest to miss what with it being on top of a hill overlooking the city, is the great mosque at the Citadel.

Similar to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, it has cascading domes and lots of pointy bits. The mosque is situated in the middle of what is basically what’s left of a fortress/palace, where there’s a couple of military and police museums, a few smaller mosques, and a whole bunch of great views. Historically, it was built to protect Egypt from Crusaders in the middle ages, but it was then ruled by a couple of different rulers until the Ottomans took over in the 1500′s. What’s left at the current citadel site is mostly from that era.

The fortress part of the citadel is just like any typical fortress, with the exception that it’s obviously Ottoman/Arab. It’s got fountains and gardens where barracks used to be, and the buildings that are now museums were basically where ancient rulers used to live. There’s a room in the military museum (which I didn’t get a chance to go into) called the “Summer Room” where there is a system of fountains that was made specifically to cool down people. The old fashioned Arab air conditioner? Apparently it’s the only room of its kind left in Cairo today. Supposedly it also very obviously used to be part of a palace because it’s supposed to be adorned with gold and jewels and such. Ah to be a Sultan in the 1100′s! If only those pesky Crusaders would get off my back.

In any case, because all the buildings inside are basically from different rulers, there are all sorts of different architectural styles. I’m sure someone could write a book on all the different things found just inside this complex! Unfortunately I’m not an expert so I won’t go into too much detail. But the great mosque is obviously Ottoman as well are many of the walls that still stand, and the police museum had a bunch of fancy lions on the side from I think it was the Malmuk rule. They were cool. At one point there used to be a nice building in which they ended up using as storage space for the explosives and weapons but someone wasn’t paying attention and it exploded. Oops. The picture to the left shows what’s left of it. I think that the sign on the right side makes it look like a Looney Toons cartoon in a way.

The mosques are all pretty different in style. There was a very small one, a medium one, and the big kitschy one. Goldilocks would’ve had a heyday. I think was the most beautiful one was the little one, with gold, red and blue inlaid mosaic everywhere. It also had this black and white inlaid strip going around the entire interior with words from the Koran written. Arabic is one of the most beautiful languages to look at, and when they make pictures and designs out of the calligraphy it just makes me go nuts!

Then there was a medium one that had more of an open courtyard and these bright green domes (pictured above). It was nice but ultimately not as interesting as the smaller one, in my opinion. Finally there was the great mosque that everyone can see from miles away! The courtyard was huge and clean, with polished white stone and a big fountain for cleaning your hands and face to get ready to enter the house of Allah for prayer. At one point the French gave the ruler at the time a gift of a French-style clock tower (which you can see on the right of the picture here), which I have to say sticks out like a sore thumb. It was also funny to learn that the clock has never worked. Ever. That’s so typical…

Another thing to notice is that the mosque has two minarets instead of one, and that’s not typical. In fact it was Ottoman law that only a Sultan could build such a mosque with two, but the ruler of Egypt at the time may have built an Ottoman style mosque because he was technically under Ottoman rule at the time, but he put two minarets in an act of rebellion— we won’t stay under Ottoman rule forever!

The inside of the mosque is just ridiculous. There is no other word for it. Yes it’s incredible with the gold and the green and the high ceilings, but dear god this was just gaudy! There were grand chandeliers and fancy painted windows on the walls and gold up the wazoo. This level of extravagance is only possible if an overindulgent ruler built it.

That said, it was definitely worth seeing!

Police and the Omnipresent President

When you’re an American watching the news, almost all you see of the Arab world are women who completely cover themselves against their will, bombs, terrorists, and policemen dressed in white with black berets. When I was in Cairo and was able to see the bigger picture first-hand, the only thing that I saw was the policemen. They were everywhere. Now, I say all this with the realization that Egypt is a relatively safe and open-minded place compared to
many other Arab countries (there the women are not required by law or necessarily pressured to cover themselves, and America is not at war with anyone in Egypt so I wasn’t a walking target), but I still stand by the fact that I would probably be just as/more likely to be hit by a car back in Toronto than get blown up somewhere there.

In any case, the police were, in fact, everywhere and I have to say that most of the time it didn’t look like they were really doing anything. There were a few instances where I would see these big prisoner trucks driving or sitting on the side of the road with a bunch of policemen standing guard with a huge rifle. I don’t know who was being kept in there or what they were for. Apparently over the past few months there have been some riots in the southern part of the city regarding a bread shortage, so maybe they were trying to take care of some of that. But it was definitely intimidating at first to see so many police officers and military people standing around with large guns. I would say that it was the most stereotypical thing that I think I saw when I was there… at least in regards to what I remember seeing on television back home.

Also, there were many instances in which I saw the president painted on the side of a wall or posted up in front of things. He was almost always depicted in a suit with large sunglasses. It made me think of Men in Black or something, which just made me laugh. It definitely wasn’t intimidating… in fact I don’t think they are meant to be. If anything he just comes off as “cool” and I think that many Egyptians think that too. My Egyptian tea/shisha buddy from Wednesday night said that he liked the president because he liked the way he talked. He also liked that he always had this entourage of beautiful women around him. Good times.

So there ends my all too short trip to Cairo. There’s a lot still out there and frankly, I can’t wait to go back! I learned tonnes and it has completely opened my mind and my desire to explore more of the middle east and Arab cultures. I can only hope that some of the conflict there comes to an end in my lifetime, not just so I can go visit without being in danger, but for the sake of what I’ve come to love about the area. It deserves to have some peace.

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