A Walk through Islamic Cairo

The second to last day of our trip was focused on the UNESCO world heritage site of Islamic Cairo. The description "Islamic" is a bit misleading, since most people in Cairo (and all of Egypt) are Muslim. It refers to the old part of the city that was established in 969 as al-Qahira. There were cities in the area prior to that time, including the ancient capital of Memphis and medieval Fustat, but Islamic Cairo contains the greatest concentration of historic buildings in the city. We had strolled through some of this area in passing after visiting Khan el Khalili at night, but hadn't taken a deep dive yet. We started on a cold and windy Friday morning, first taking an Uber down to a new development called "The Platform" in Maadi, an upscale neighborhood on the south side of Cairo. The Platform is a nice area right alongside the Nile, with a number of restaurants. We had a nice brunch at Baladina. It was a bit chilly but we warmed up with cappuccino, sahlab, hot chocolate, nutella and banana feteer, and spicy tamiyya.

Hot drinks and yummy feteer.

It was a chilly, windy, rainy morning.

A cappuccino was perfect for the weather.

The platform has a nice location along the Nile.

After brunch, we took an Uber to the southern end of Islamic Cairo, the Fatamid city surrounded by walls built in the 11th and 12th century. We started outside the walls, walking along the Darb al Ahmar, the main road that ran south of the city walls, which is still lined with monuments from the 14th and 15th centuries. We walked through the surrounding neighborhood, which was bustling since it was Friday around mid-day prayers. We passed the Aqsunqur mosque, built in 1347, the mosque and madrasa of Umm Sultan Sha'aban with its interesting red and white striped facade, and the 14th century mosque of Al Maridani, which was being actively restored and preserved. Finally we passed the 1481 mosque of Qijmas al Ishaqi, which is featured on Egypt's 50 pound banknote. This area is packed with historic sites and is definitely worth visiting.

Parts of the neighborhood have been recently upgraded - note the new paving stones.

It's an active neighborhood, with shops and bustling streets.

A lot of the old buildings have impressive facades and domes.

Walking down the street there's one impressive mosque after another.

Arches and entrances.

Make sure to look up to appreciate all of the details.

The impressive mosque and school of Umm Sultan Sha'ban.

Good to see restoration on these historic buildings.

Fresh bananas were really common in Egypt, and very cheap.

As was fresh meat...

Pretty cool to be at a site important enough to be on the 50 pound banknote!

Continuing north, we passed through the tentmaker's market, a covered souq dating back to 1650, before entering the old city walls through the Bab Zuweila (11th century southern gate). The stretch of road within the city walls is know as Muizz Street, and is considered by the United Nations to have the "greatest concentration of medieval architectural treasures in the Islamic world." It's about a kilometer long, and is lined with mosques, schools, baths, and public fountains from medieval times. Many of them have been restored and preserved, and the street itself has been upgraded and is now pedestrian-only. It's one of the highlights of Cairo if you have any interest in architecture or the history of the city.

View from the tentmaker's market toward the southern gate (Bab Zuweila).

The gate is topped by the 15th century minarets of the mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad.

Looking up from inside the city wall.

Bab Zuweila has amazing views across all of the minarets of Muizz street.

View towards the citadel.

David on one of the minarets.

The spiral stairs up the interior of the minarets get a bit dark.

Views from the top - the dense clutter of Islamic Cairo.

There's also a great view into the adjacent mosque.

Paul and Thomas on the minaret.

Paul would have climbed to the very top, but we convinced him otherwise.

Bab Zuweila is a great site to visit in Cairo. There's a small entrance fee, and it's worth it for the commanding views from the roof and minaret. Inside there are also some small exhibits and information about the history of the structure. We were the only tourists there.

From the gate, we continued north along Muizz street, passing the restored Ottoman public water fountain (sabil) of Mohammed Ali Pasha, and the school (madrasa) of Sultan al-Ghuri, which spans both sides of street. At this point a modern road with a fence blocks the way forward, so we veered off to the east, passing Al Azhar mosque and taking a pedestrian tunnel under the road to Khan el Khalili. We stopped for some mint tea at Fishawi, a cafe dating back to 1773.

Sabil of Muhammed Ali Pasha. People would get free water through the screens.

The al-Ghuri complex towers above the street.

Al Azhar's intricate facade and minaret.

An elaborate gate on the narrow street behind Al Azhar.

Not the first, nor the last, dog we saw sleeping on a car.

Zeinab Khatun House, an Ottoman era courtyard house.

The numerous minarets of Al Azhar.

The interior of Fishawi. It's popular with both tourists and Egyptians and is incredibly atmospheric.

Fresh mint in sugary tea - an Egyptian staple!

After our tea at Fishawi, we joined back up with Muizz street and continued walking north through the most impressive portion of the street, nicknamed bain al-qasrain ("between two palaces"). If you visit only one place in Islamic Cairo, it should be this section, which is easily combined with a visit to Khan el Khalili. There's one ticket that lets you in to all of the historic buildings along the street, which is well worth it so you can visit the elaborate and well preserved interiors.

The first major building you come across is the massive Qalawun Complex, a 13th century mausoleum, mosque, school, and hospital. It's the largest and one of the best preserved of the buildings along this street. The interior has intricate carving and painting, soaring spaces and intimate courtyards. It's a great place to wander and reflect. Immediately north is the 14th century mosque of Sultan Barquq, which is equally impressive. It has a spectacular ceiling and a beautiful courtyard.

The Qalawun complex.

The interior of the Qalawun complex, with soaring arches.

There are details everywhere, like this inlaid stone pattern on a wall.

The dome of Qalawun's mausoleum.

The beautiful carved and painted writing and designs along the walls.

A cat sleeping in the courtyard.

The "tree of pearls" mosaic in Qalawun's mosque.

For a little change of pace, the old school toilet in the Qalawun Complex. Don't worry, they had a modern toilet too!

The astounding carved wooden dome above the fountain in the courtyard of the mosque of Barquq.

Beautiful painted ceiling in the mosque of Barquq.

Impressive arches and lots of details.

David in the main section of the Mosque of Barquq.

There were a number of atmospheric passages.

Thomas and David in one of the passages.

If there isn't a coffee table book called the "Doors of Cairo" there should be.

After visiting all of the Qalawun complex and the mosque of Barquq (there are multiple entrances, all of which have a sign), the next stop was Hammam Inal. It's a restored bathhouse from 1456. There's not too much to see, but it's one of the few surviving bathhouses in Cairo. There's also a nearby textile museum and a restored 14th century house, we skipped both and continued on, passing another Ottoman water fountain and the mosque of al-Aqmar ("the moonlit"). There's also a small welcome center that is mostly just shops, but has a neat model of Muizz street. The final monuments we walked by were the El-Selehdar mosque (from 1839), the Al Hakim mosque (from 928), and finally Bab al-Futuh, the northern gate to the old city.

The elaborate sabil of Abdel Rahman Katkhuda.

The entrance portal to Al aqmar, "the moonlit" mosque, completed in 1125.

The model of the street in the visitor's center.

A lively side street.

Another cute cat!

Al-Hakim has the oldest original minarets in Cairo

Bab al-futuh, one of the northern gates (completed in 1087), includes re-used pharaonic stones.

After visiting Islamic Cairo, we took an Uber towards downtown to stroll around and visit Cafe Riche, a century-old cafe that used to be popular with writers and revolutionaries. From there, we met up with our friend Alex for dinner at Crave on Zamalek. Non-Egyptian food restaurants here tend to have a very broad menu and Crave had everything from steaks and sandwiches to pizza and pasta. The food here was just ok (as is common with "western" restaurants in Cairo), but the restaurant was very modern and the interior was very nice.

Downtown has lots of nice 19th century buildings! Not all in this good shape, unfortunately.

We enjoyed a couple beers at Cafe Riche.

Another oddly rainy day in Cairo. This pedestrian street was recently upgraded.

Lentil soup at Crave.

After dinner, we stopped by Drinkies before the four of us went to the AirBnB to hang out for the evening. With one more day in Cairo we had to make sure we planned some interesting sights and meals!

The Great Pyramids of Giza & More Cairo

Finally, the post that features the most emblematic site of Egypt, the pyramids!

Pyramid jump!

But, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. 😉 We returned from our desert camping trip at around 3pm, and our friend Thomas was waiting for us in the AirBnB. Since he arrived at 4am the previous day, just as we were about to head out for our camping trip, he had been exploring Cairo on his own.

The first thing we wanted to do when we returned was to take a shower! After cleaning up the second thing we needed was food. All we had to eat was a small breakfast in the desert and it was nearly dinner time so we decided to return to the delicious Lebanese restaurant we visited earlier in our trip, Taboula, but this time at their Zamalek outpost a short walk from our AirBnB. After a way-too-big dinner, we went to the nearby Zamalek Nile Hotel's rooftop bar for a drink and sunset views over the city and the Nile River. Interestingly enough, the Nile Hotel is adjacent to the embassy of the Vatican City. Who knew that they even had embassies? Like pretty much all the bars in Cairo, prepare to be disappointed in the quality and service, but the view was nice.

Mmmm... Lebanese food.

View from the rooftop bar at the Zamalek Nile Hotel.

Cairo's riverfront is pretty!

No kidnappings of babies here!

On the way back to the AirBnB we swung by Drinkies, the local government sanctioned alcohol store, and bought a few beers and a variety of "mixed drinks." These are basically 10% alcohol Zimas but with a variety of mostly awful flavors. Before turning in for the evening we made plans for the next day, which would be focused on the pyramids of Giza.

We started our journey by meeting our friend Alex, who just happened to be in Cairo for work, at the Marriott hotel. From there we took an Uber to the entrance of the great pyramids. There are actually over 100 pyramids in Egypt, most of which were built as tombs for Pharaohs in the Old Kingdom. The temples and tombs we saw in Luxor are a thousand years newer, after the ancient Egyptians stopped building pyramids. The two largest (and most famous) Egyptian pyramids are in Giza, just west of Cairo. The 481 foot tall Pyramid of Khufu, AKA the "great pyramid of Giza," is the only remaining ancient wonder, and was the tallest man-made structure on earth for over 3,800 years.

We arrived via the main entrance (there's a smaller entrance near the sphinx), and waited in a short line to get tickets. There were quite a few tour groups and it was generally busy, but not nearly as crowded as when Paul visited back in 2002 and 2008. Once inside the site, we walked between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre, the two largest pyramids. Khafre still has some of the original limestone casing near the top. The weather was really windy, but luckily clear with blue skies. We kept walking over to the third major pyramid, the pyramid of Menkaure, and then walked out into the "desert" for views over all 9 pyramids of Giza. We also could see some of the pyramids of Saqqara and Dashur in the distance. There are several other impressive pyramids to the south of the Giza pyramids, including the step pyramid of Djoser, the bent pyramid, and the red pyramid. Paul visited these pyramids back in 2002, but we didn't have the time or energy to make the drive further south and explore these additional pyramids.

The pyramids are impressive.

We visited on probably the clearest day of our trip, providing postcard perfect views.

David and pyramid.

You can get a sense of the scale by comparing to the person - each of these stones was 2.5 tons!

Some of the original limestone casing is still visible. All of the pyramids were covered in smooth gleaming white limestone.

The Pyramid of Menkaure, with a big gash where a 12th century ruler tried to demolish it.

There are plenty of camels for tourists to rent. We opted to walk.

Looking back at the great pyramid.

David, Alex, and Paul with the two largest pyramids. It was windy!

Explorers!

These are the views you get with about a 15 minute walk out into the desert. Definitely worth it.

Another in the series of "David jumping at a UNESCO world heritage site."

It's hard to comprehend how massive they are. The great pyramid is about 5.7 million tons of stone.

The pyramids are very close to Cairo/Giza, but from certain angles you can hide the city.

Another postcard view. From out here you can see all 9 pyramids of Giza.

Paul was representing Atlanta United.

After taking in the spectacular view across the plateau, we walked to the sphinx, and then past the queen's pyramids on the way to the Solar Boat Museum. The museum features a boat unearthed and reconstructed in the 1960s. It's part of a site inclusive ticket so we spent a few minutes checking it out. Most sources indicate it's the oldest surviving boat in the world, originally constructed to bring Khufu across the Nile to his pyramid tomb. It was buried along with several other ships for Khufu to use in the afterlife.

To end out the trip we climbed into the pyramid of Khufu (the largest pyramid in Egypt). Which pyramid you can enter varies, depending on the day or even the year. The first portion of the trip into Khufu's pyramid features a section blasted out by archaeologists. After you reach the part of the tunnel made by the ancient Egyptians, the path narrows and features a steep climb upward before it opens up to an impressivly tall chamber and eventually the tomb. The climb is very tight at some points and it's easy to feel claustrophobic. The narrowest part of the tunnel is about 1x1 meter and often there are people passing up and down at the same time. There's nothing left in the tomb, but the experience of climbing into the heart of the great pyramid is quite an adventure.

The sphinx and the great pyramid.

The sphinx is a little smaller than people might expect.

David has a new boyfriend.

He's been missing his nose for a few centuries. Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon didn't do it.

Climbing up into the great pyramid. No pictures allowed inside. Oops.

This is the view when you emerge from the great pyramid. It's really close to the city. In fact, the satellite cities even wrap around to the west of the pyramids.

The great pyramids of Giza are an impressive site, especially considering they were built 4500 years ago. It's astounding that an ancient civilization developed the engineering skills required to construct such massive monuments. While the site has been engulfed by the sprawling metropolis of Cairo, there are still great viewpoints that make it seem like you're in the middle of the Sahara. There are a few pushy vendors, but we were only minimally hassled by a couple of people trying to sell things or get us to ride a horse or camel.

After walking 5 miles around the pyramids complex in the sand, sun and wind it was definitely time for some lunch. We caught another uber back to Zamalek to have lunch at Abou el Sid. This restaurant is quite possibly the quintessential Egyptian restaurant, with interesting interior design and good food. Unfortunately, we had pretty bad service here, but would probably still recommend you visit if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a place to try Egyptian food. The winning dish was ordered by Alex and was a baked chicken dish with rice and milk.

Lunch at Abou el Sid.

Ready to eat after a long morning at the pyramids.

After lunch we had a bit of a rest before heading back to the Khan al Khalili area. Our Uber took quite some time - over an hour to go from our AirBnB to pick up Alex at the Marriott and get to the Khan. While Ubers have been overall a very convenient way to travel in Cairo, we've had a fair share of frustration as the city has a number of one-way streets, insane traffic, and Uber drivers who don't want to use their cell phone data to navigate. Once we arrived at Khan al Khalili, we wandered around for a bit, Alex bought a lamp, and we settled in for some feteer at the Egyptian Pancake House. Feteer is an Egyptian specialty and you should definitely try it. It's basically a flaky pizza-like food that can be stuffed or topped with meat, cheese, honey, or other savory or sweet ingredients.

Alex at an atmospheric lamp shop.

We shared beef, cheese, and honey feteer.

To end the day we went back to Zamalek and had a quick drink at Harry's Bar in the Marriott. It was fine at first, then a live "band" started - basically very loud karaoke. We would say to avoid bars in Cairo. They're expensive, usually very smoky, and sometimes loud. The problem is the alternatives aren't great either - most Cairenes hang out smoking sheesha (hookah), which we wouldn't recommend because, well, cancer. The other alternative is coffee or tea, but late at night you don't necessarily want a shot of caffeine. We ended up spending most night hanging at the AirBnB.

Next up, our final post from Cairo. Just two days left in Egypt!