Bab Zaywala

Bab means a gate. I only found this out after I returned from the trip. All the time when I told the taxi driver that we want to go to Bab Zaywala, I thought I was going to a mosque. Indeed there was a mosque as there are so many mosques in Islamic Cairo. Actually this is the site of this massive gate, it is just massive, the door must weigh a few tons. I don't anyone can even move it to open or close it. Looking at my pictures again, it is clear to me that I missed the point. I don't have any impressive pictures of how huge this gate is. Around here is an interesting and scruffy neighborhood. It is an old neighborhood and full of interesting Mamluk architecture. This gate dates before the Mamluk rule, it belonged to the Fatimid. It is fully restored and is absolutely beautiful.

Look at the size of this door.

This is an interesting part of Islamic Cairo. We had our taxi driver waiting for us. I don't think I dare venture here alone. The people didn't bother us, they pretty much left us to wander around and take pictures. No one hustled us, just the custodians of the mosque nearby which we later went in to visit. The custodians extracted huge baksheesh from us.

In Cairo, there's haphazard building projects going on all over the city, probably without proper licence or inspection. Buildings are always in danger of collapsing and do collapse.

Egyptian cotton. We saw bales and bales of raw cotton but we didn't see any shops selling finished Egyptian cotton products. We would have loved to buy some. Instead we didn't do any shopping at all. There was nothing to buy.

I am still reading about Cairo as I write these postings. I have acquired a few more books and am planning my return visit for next year. One would think I should have run out of things to write by now. No, I still have a lot of interesting places to post about.