Return to Cairo: Zamalek & Sultan Hassan

Our flight from Luxor back to Cairo was at 9:30 am, so we had enough time to get some breakfast at the hotel and then checkout. After a final squabble with our cab driver, who tried to get double payment from us, we bid adieu to Luxor and the temples and tombs of the Middle and New Kingdom.

Like our flight down to Luxor, the return flight was also Business Class (inadvertently). This time there were just a couple other people booked in Business, so it was really awkward when the bus to take us out to the plane was basically empty. Anyway, the flight back was nice and the windows weren't broken this time, so Paul was able to take a few photos (through the haze) coming into Cairo.

The step pyramid djoser, from the 27th century BCE.

The 344 foot tall red pyramid.

The Abu Sir pyramids.

Cairo is humongous.

After landing, we called an Uber to take us to our AirBnB on the island of Zamalek. Zamalek is where Paul's dorm was located when he was on study abroad. The island is leafy and green, with less noise and a more laid back atmosphere than downtown Cairo despite being just over the bridge.

Our AirBnB is on the tenth floor of a high rise building on the northern half of Zamalek. It has two bedrooms and 1.5 baths with a huge living room and a kitchen. The place has a large balcony overlooking Zamalek and Giza to the west. The owner was super nice and lives just above us.

Since we knew we'd be going on a desert tour early the next morning, we decided to just eat a light lunch at a place called Euro Deli, near Paul's dorm, then visit a few sites in central Cairo before they closed.

Balcony at the AirBnB.

AirBnB views!

Paul's old dorm. Now they're fancy apartments.

There are a lot of elegant old buildings and embassies in Zamalek.

Our living room is so cute!

With the remainder of our afternoon we decided to visit a couple mosques (Sultan Hassan & Al-Rifai). Traffic was absolutely horrible and we arrived later than expected. The sites were supposed to close at 5pm, but things in Cairo just kinda do what they want, so when we arrived they were only open for about 20 minutes longer (closing at 4:30). Luckily, we had enough time to appreciate the amazing vertical scale of the mosque and mausoleum of Sultan Hassan, and we were helped by a curator who ran us through quickly and pointed out the highlights in Arabic, which Paul mostly understood. Sultan Hassan is monumental and is definitely worth visiting if you're in Cairo. While it's from the 14th century, right next door is the Al-Rifai mosque, completed in 1912. It uses a style similar to Sultan Hassan, and matches in height. The two complement each other. We only had a few minutes inside Al-Rifai, but we were able to see the tombs of the last two kings of Egypt.

Al-Rifai on the left, and Sultan Hassan on the right, with the citadel in the background.

Looking into the central courtyard of Sultan Hassan.

The arches are enormous.

Lantern and minaret.

David with the huge arch. Amazing that they built this in the 1300s.

The central fountain.

The elaborate mihrab.

Golden arabic script and multicolored stone.

The interior of Al-Rifai mosque

Al-Rifai has the same scale as Sultan Hassan, but with modern and Ottoman influences.

View of the mosque of Mohammed Ali in the Citadel, towering above the two mosques we visited.

After our quick visit, Paul called the book binder he had ordered from, and luckily they had completed the inscription so we took an uber to Futstat Souq to pick up his books. While waiting for the Uber, two 10-year-olds pulled up in a tuk-tuk, asked us if we needed a ride, laughed and rode off, almost running into a car in the process. Egypt, y'all! The land of no laws!

By now it was nearly dark outside so we decided to head back to Zamalek and go shopping at Fair Trade Egypt. This store had a good selection of haggle-free goods made by local women. We bought some souvenirs for ourselves and family and then started strolling back to our AirBnB. En route, Paul remembered one of his favorite shawarma places was on the way, Baraka, and stopped for a quick shawarma sandwich, which was just as delicious as he remembered. Continuing the stroll, we stopped for ice cream at Mandarine Koueider, which we would highly recommend to anyone staying in Zamalek. The yogurt with raspberry ice cream is excellent!

Baraka Shawarma! So good.

Raspberry yogurt and dark chocolate ice cream. This won't be our only trip to Mandarine!

Evening AirBnB views.

Streets are still active.

Before calling it a night, we packed a small backpack for our overnight trip to the desert the next day. Our driver was set to arrive at 7am, but before that our friend Thomas would be arriving from London. Thomas was set to arrive at 4am, so it was an early night to prepare for those two events.