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.