Cairo Day Two - Mosques Across Centuries

We started our second full day in Cairo with a quick breakfast on the hotel roof, then took an Uber to the Gayer-Anderson Museum. This museum hosts a small collection of Middle and Far Eastern items collected by Gayer-Anderson, who was a British major in the Egyptian army in the early 1900s. When he died in 1945, he left his collection to the Egyptian state, which turned it, along with his house (actually two adjoined 17th century houses), into a small museum to showcase the works. It's a nice place to spend 45 minutes or so, with a number of interesting rooms and a great view from the roof.

From here, we went right next door to visit the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, which is the oldest intact Mosque in Cairo, dating from 879 CE. It's also the largest mosque in the city by square footage. Today it's not really used as a mosque and is more of a museum. You can enter, walk around and climb the minaret to get views of the city. The design and layout are similar to the Mosque of Amir Ibn al As, with a large open central courtyard. Since it's not an active mosque, there are people here who are happy to part you from some money to give you special shoes to walk through the grounds and also to make a donation to upkeep.

View of a minaret through wooden screens on the roof of the museum.

One of the courtyards in the Gayer-Anderson museum.

The exterior wall of the mosque of Ibn Tulun, and an adjacent mosque.

Another view from the museum roof.

The interior courtyard of Ibn Tulun. It has a simple but beautiful style.

View of the minaret from the center of Ibn Tulun. It's Samarran in style, very unlike later Cairene mosques.

Sunlight streaming through the roof of the mosque.

David with the minaret. You can walk up to the top.

Paul on the roof.

Looking out over the city from the top of the minaret. It was another hazy day, but the view was still great.

The view toward the citadel, with the 19th century mosque of Muhammad Ali.

And the view to the 14th century mosque of Saltan Hassan and 20th century Al Rifai mosque.

The mosque of Ibn Tulun is really large, as you can see from the two people on the roof.

Panoramic view.

Paul walking up the minaret.

Next, to keep the mosque theme rolling, we took an Uber to the 15th century Mosque and Mausoleum of Qaitbay. It's in the Northern Cemetery, a very poor area of town, and is well off the tourist radar. When we got there the gate was shut, but walking around the area we ran in to a random British guy from Cairo who told us we could just take our shoes off and go in. The building is considered the pinnacle of Islamic architecture in Egypt. It's a small space, but with beautiful wood carving and painting, and a spectacular carved stone dome and minaret. It's a quiet space lit only through small skylights, creating a sense of calm broken only by the gentle noise of pigeons. That is, until the caretaker came back and yelled at us for coming in while the gate was closed. Oops. There were also some ongoing renovations, and we were unable to climb the minaret. This was also the case when Paul visited in 2008. While this mosque is a bit out of the way its worth checking out if you have any interest in Islamic architecture. Also, it's featured on the Egyptian one pound banknote!

Clothes dry quickly on the line in Cairo.

One of the roads leading to the mosque of Qaitbay. A lot of the buildings in the area are on top of medieval tombs. 

Just some goats hanging out in the street.

Looking straight up at the interior ceiling (below the dome) of the mosque of Qaytbay.

The interior is small but dramatic.

Intricate woodwork with ivory inlay.

There is refined detail everywhere, including carved stonework and Arabic script.

Close-up of the ceiling, with intricate painted interlocking wood pieces.

The dome is carved stone, with overlaid geometric and floral patterns.

The dome is probably the finest example of stone carving in Cairo.

The red and black stone work above the entrance.

The minaret is also very elaborate.

At this point we were getting hungry and decided to go somewhere a little more laid back and caught another Uber to the Garden City area, just south of Tahrir Square. This neighborhood has curvy streets, tons of trees and is home to some nice restaurants and the US Embassy. The Embassy is a monumental fortress, looming over the neighborhood. For lunch, we went to a Lebanese restaurant in the neighborhood named Taboula. The food here was really excellent! The table next to us was full of American embassy workers, so it felt a bit odd to be here. But we highly recommend the hummus, kibbeh, and fattoush.

Maybe we ordered a little too much food. But YUM!

With lunch under our belt we took a stroll back towards the center of town via the American University in Cairo Bookstore. To enter, you have to go through a metal detector, show identification and sign-in. The bookstore has a big collection of English-printed materials, including a large collection of material on the history and culture of Egypt, Cairo, Islam, and the Arabic language. We bought a couple small books to take home as gifts.

From here, we decided to take a stroll through Tahrir Square back to look at the Nile in the daytime. The air pollution hangs thick over Cairo. Move over, Mexico City, there's a newly crowned king of bad air quality on our trips! The river here is very wide and inviting. People were strolling along the banks on the corniche. There were several boats out on the river as well.

The facade of AUC, where Paul attended back in 2002. The University has a sprawling new campus out in the suburbs.

Well that's an interesting name for a book.

Hazy view over the Nile.

Since it was still relatively early, we decided to catch an Uber to the Islamic Art Museum, which was still open for another few hours. This museum, which was damaged in a terrorist blast at the nearby police station, reopened a few years back with improved exhibits. Items with a red dot on their explanation were damaged by the blast and repaired. It was very sad to see some centuries old pottery super-glued back together. The museum is well curated and there are numerous fine example of wood carvings, pottery, stone work and tapestries. Islamic art is very focused on geometric figures and calligraphy, since representation of humans is generally frowned upon in the Muslim world.

A device for finding which way Mecca is.

An early astrolabe and other astronomical devices.

The courtyard of the Islamic Museum.

An example of stone carved Arabic script.

After running around all day, we were pretty tired, so we caught another Uber back to the hotel for a nap before venturing out for dinner at Eish and Malh. This cafe features live music, a variety of drinks, desserts and Italian food. Paul had a pizza while David had a fried chicken cutlet with "mozzarella" cheese and some mixed veggies and potatoes. The live music was unexpected and pretty great! The singer was mostly singing soft American pop songs and had a great voice. The food was just ok. David described it as if a capable chef had once read a book about Italian food and then did his best. :) I think it's impossible for them to get some of the ingredients they need. Overall, we'd still recommend it - seems like a nice place to hang out and have coffee and snacks.

We found an Atlanta shirt in a shop window, and Paul was wearing his Atlanta shirt. It was very "excelient."

So ends the first leg of our Egypt trip in downtown Cairo. From here we fly down to Luxor for a long weekend to visit the ruins of Luxor, Karnak, and the Valley of the Kings, before returning to Cairo and a trip to the western desert.