A very sumptuous mausoleum, Cairo

Right next to the family who was living in the cemetery is this mausoleum which is as sumptuous as a palace or a mosque. I think the family of Sultan Mohammad Ali is buried here. It has the bodies of his whole family, all his wives (I forgot how many) and all his children. We paid the custodians 40 Le to get in for the both of us. Obviously these are friends of our taxi driver. One of the custodians acted as our guide and he later demanded more money for himself. He told me nobody goes there, only a few tourists. The city of the dead is a fascinating place. It is OK to visit with a guide, a taxi driver as a guide is perfect. He can take you to places that the guide books either are silent about or warns you against going. We met people on the plane who was going to Luxor who told us there is nothing to see in Cairo. I guess if you only count the museum and the pyramids, there is nothing else. On the contrary, there are a lot of nooks and crannies especially in Islamic Cairo that are so fascinating and interesting. Not all mosques are alike, even there, each has their own history and are very different. We've been to a few and some are so fascinating. Islamic architecture and Islamic art is so different and that is something to see. We love all the mosques that we've visited.

A Venetian glass chandelier.

The gorgeous detail....

Imagine all this and more were all done in a day. There was so much to see and to do. Now that I have time to reprocess my trip, I can say, it was quite wonderful. The key is to use a taxi driver to act as a guide. He takes you there, he waits for you, you can take your time and he gets you to the next place. This is the best arrangement. You don't need any guide in some places like the Egyptian museum, the spice market and Coptic Cairo. Coptic Cairo is a pretty small area, I've read on the Internet that when the Christians tried to expand, they were met by violent (even blood was shed) protests by the Muslims. Coptic Cairo is an enclosed area and therefore very compact.

Tourism is the main part of the economy and there are special tourism police at every tourist venue especially the Coptic Christian area. There are cop cars, armored trucks and bomb disposal trucks parked at the Coptic area. I don't know how safe that is because the day before our visit there was an explosion at the spice market, Khan al Khalili, a French tourist was killed, 7 German tourists were injured. There were no tourists there on the day we visited, we didn't know about the explosion. We only heard about is after we visited.

City of the dead, Cairo

It amazes me to know that the famous stuff in Egypt are the burial places whether it be of the Pharaohs or the other rulers of the Egyptians especially the Mamluks. So if you find yourself in Cairo or Egypt, don't be surprised if your pictures are full of burial plots and monuments. Our trip of 5 days in Cairo was this way. We were taken to a cemetery. There are many cemeteries in and around Cairo, the Northern cemetery, the Southern Cemetery, the Coptic Christian cemetery, the Greek cemetery and of course the pyramids which are actually burial monuments. We were taken by our taxi driver to the Southern cemetery, a place dotted with Mamluk architecture. It is not just a place to put the dead but it has become a city for the living. Housing in Cairo is so expensive that the people find ingenious ways of living. Muslim graves are huge, often housing the coffins of all the family. When Muslims visit the dead, they often stay overnight so there is lots of room. The poor of Cairo finds themselves sharing living spaces with the dead. Sometimes they pay rent to the owners, other times the owners pay them to be caretakers. We were taken to see the living conditions of a family there and they live under the most horrendous conditions. The men are in the city working, the women folk and the older men are at home. It was a beautiful day in Cairo, always only go when the weather is cool. We were shown around and the taxi driver asked me to give them some money. I slipped the woman a 5Le note, she was happy. Later when we got to leave, the little girl asked our driver in Arabic, she wanted pencils. I always have lots of writing material with me, I gave her some of my stash. She was so pleased. If you are going to Egypt or China, bring some school supplies, some pencils, some writing paper and some pens. It will be so appreciated.

This is actually a road through the cemetery. This family that we visited are hanging outside, they live in this cemetery. It is estimated some 500,000 people live in cemeteries all over Cairo. We were to visit another family in a Coptic Christian cemetery.

Imagine looking out your back door.... to see a cemetery.

The living condition is unspeakable. We were to later on visit some gorgeous Mamluk mausoleums. Cairo is a different travel experience all together. In spite of the difficulties and problems, I will be back.

The mosque of Muhammad Ali

Clearly this is the favorite mosque of a lot of people. It is pretty. The architect was Greek who based his plans on the Blue mosque in Constantinople, hence it looks very similar and looks truly Ottoman. Sultan Muhammad Ali was Ottoman who kicked out the Mamluks and established himself as ruler of Egypt and ruled from the Citadel. It can be seen from almost all of Cairo, it is the most dominating feature of the Cairo skyline. From its grounds, one can almost see all of Cairo and as far as the Giza pyramids. Wow, to have been the ruler and to have seen your subjects at your feet and the glory of old Egypt (the Giza pyramids) at your feet, I can only imagine the feeling. He was an admirer of the west and did much to modernize Egypt putting huge irrigation systems and schools. He started the Egyptian on growing cotton which remains today still an important export.

His tomb behind the intricate latticework of the door guarding it.

This was a day of mosques. What else would one see in a Muslim country? The children were friendly, a lot of them came up to us to say, 'welcome to Egypt'. The taxi drivers were OK, they know we have the money to spend, we picked only those who could speak English and these are people who are used to foreigners especially foreign women. By and large, we had a profitable time in Cairo. Would I return? I'll be heading South to Upper Egypt the next time.

Like all mosques, we had to take our shoes off. Here we weren't asked to cover our heads. It was only at one mosque that were asked to take our shoes off and cover our heads and there was a section where only the men can go. Most mosques had an open floor plan where anyone could just wander in. Usually mosques are not supposed to charge an entry fee except they might ask for some change to look after your shoes. We have encountered some mosques where the custodians asked for exhorbitant entry fees, presumably for themselves. We only payed because the mosque was worth visiting, they have historical significance. Otherwise we just skip the mosque or the museum. The museum of Islamic Ceramic crafts was one where we didn't want to pay to go in.