Some of the places I visited First Installment

The Citadel & Mohammad Ali Mosque within the Walls

The Citadel and Mohammad Ali Mosque.

The Citadel originally was built in 810 AD as a pavilion called the "Dome of the Wind", by the governor of the city at that time. The area was well known for its cool breeze. The early governors, used the pavilion for its view of Cairo and the cooling breeze. Between 1176 and 1183, Salah ad-Din (Saladin 1171-1193 AD), built a strong and impenetrable fort and palace to protect the area from attacks by the Crusaders. The Citadel of Cairo is very medieval in look and style.

For the next 700 years, Egypt was ruled from this hill. During the 1330s al-Nasir Muhammad, (AD 1293-1340) and was considered the greatest Mamluk sultan, tore down most of the Ayyubid buildings to make room for his own needs, which included several palaces and a mosque in addition to barracks for his army.

Over the course of the Citadel’s history it has been the seat of government for the Ayyubid, Mamluk, Ottoman, and Khedival rulers of Egypt from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and each ruler has added their influence to the buildings by adding to or rebuilding all, or parts of the Citadel.

Nothing remains of the original fortress except a part of the walls and the well that supplied the Citadel with water. The walls that circle the northern side are 18 metres (33 ft) tall and 3.4 metres (10 ft) thick.

When the Turkish Muhammad 'Ali was sent to Cairo by the Ottoman rulers as Governor in the 1800s he had all the original buildings of the Citadel torn down and he rebuilt the complex which is why it has a heavy Turkish-Ottoman empire influence.

The mosque that he built also bears his name. It was built between 1824 and 1848. The current domes were rebuilt in the 1930s. The Muhammad Ali Mosque is also known as the Alabaster Mosque.

The mosque has the customary domes and tall slender minarets but show the Ottoman style. The interior has hanging globe lamps circling the ceiling, like stars in an evening sky as well as a very large chandelier. The ceiling is absolutely stunning, richly decorated with mosaics in green and gold and the interior is huge and has large, tall marble columns holding and archways as part of the beautiful interior. There are also small stained glass windows high up near the ceiling and the light is filtered through the coloured glass. The effect is stunning. The red and gold carpets are probably not the originals, but would reflect the style of the original ones. Although very worn from the hundreds of feet that walk on them daily, you can see the rich traditional elegance of the carpets.

Muhammad Ali is buried beneath a white marble monument on the right side of the entrance behind a bronze grill.

In the large open courtyard is a Turkish style Baroque ablutions fountain and a French ornate clock which was a gift from King Louis Philippe in exchange for an obelisk that is in Paris. The clock for some reason, has never worked.

Ceiling inside Mosque

A week and a bit after Egypt

I have been intending to add more on Egypt for several days, but the home world keeps intruding.

I just read my last post which I wrote at Transit hotel in Malaysia on the way home (done while brain was obviously not functioning). I was horrified at the myriad of spelling bloopers .... you know I actually checked that before posting and didn't see the mistakes. I knew i was exhausted but didn't realise I was THAT exhausted.

Besides unpacking and talking to family and friends ninety to the dozen about Egypt, I have managed to check out and post to the forums I am part of and also played around with facebook ... basically all time wasters LOL because I can't completely pull myself back into the everyday, though this week I do find that the body and mind is more in sync, and I am ready to try to put everything together and begin to add to the blog.

I still await photos from a couple of the girls, who were kind enough to take photos for me after my camera came to grief when we visited the pyramids.

I have also copied the DVD of the cruise that 3 of us purchased between us, but I still haven't managed to find the time to sit and watch it. Lindy tells me it is really good. So another thing to do is added to my every growing 'To Do' list.

The cruise ship has a resident video man, he runs a shop on board and he just wanders around taking video of everyone on board. He told us it was LE 150 for 2 DVDs, but the morning we were leaving the the cruise, he told us it was now LE 175 ( nearly AUD$50 / USD $32, now that is expensive!).

We tried to bring the price down, and we did want the memories, so finally agreed to pay the extra ( he was the only crook we met out of all the 100s of Egyptians we met) - After receiving the DVD which is only a home made thing no fancy covers or DVD label. We found that thepromised 2nd DVD was not part of the deal lucky we had disembarked when we found out or we probably would have thrown him and his camera overboard.

Anyway when I return to post some more, I will add more on the sights and special places of Egypt.

On Way Home

Well here I am in Malaysia at the Transit hotel. It was sad to leave Egypt. A nicer lot of people one would be hard pressed to meet. The Egyptians are friendly kind and so hospitable, even strangers on the street. They smile and laugh a lot and welcome visitors with open arms.

Our last day and half was spent just browsing the market at Khan el Khalili. The other ladies spent a lot of time at bellydance costume shops. I lost interest and went back to a small shop where a friend of Ali's was. I sat and talked to Ali and Tarek. Ali was our tour operator, an Egyptian who lives in Aussie. Tarek is one of his many friends.

We had a farewell dinner on the Nile Maxim river boat. Asmahan the well known brazilian bellydancer put on a special show for us. It was great, we all got up and danced as well. Ayman our guide through much of our trip joined us for the dinner, it was great to see him one last time. He has such a love for Egypt and his knowledge of ancient Egypt is amazing. We all learnt so much. I will add more to the blog after my brain begins to function again:-) We are all in overload at the moment and absolutely exhausted. Everyday was full to the brim, hardly a moment to spare to think on each days happenings.

I will continue in a few days .....

Camera

Addition:

I forgot to mention about my camera. In the first days when we went to the pyramids, my camera fell off the xray table and smashed. I was so disappointed, but the girls have all taken heaps of photos, so we will be sharing and yes I am in lots of them. Christy and Lindy will burn CDs with the photos they took and I took. Tonight at the pyramids light & sound show, went to take photos with phone camera and the jolly thing jammed! I couldn't believe it! So no photos again ( Isabelle & Jeanette tiik some). I tried several times to get it too work all to no avail:-( When we got back to the hotel I turned the phone on and yes ... the phone worked again, I couldn't believe it! Seems something was saying to me "no photos" just absorb and feel the magic and believe me the pyramids are magic and out there AWESOME!

21st January 2009 - Aswan -Alexandria - Cairo

Restored Fort - Alexandria Egypt

We left Aswan by train on Sunday 18th Jan. It was an overnight sleeper train. The trains are oldish and a bit run down but comfortable if somewhat cramped in the cabins. We dressed in our galabeya's and hip scarves for the purpose of having a fun time. After the ghastly dinner that was served we rocked and rolled (due to train motion - not alcohol) to the club bar in the centre of the train and had a ghastly bottle of wine ... literally undrinkable.

The train attendants were there and as soon as they saw us they put on some music and we all got up and began dancing. Quite difficult when the train swung around bends at a fast clip, but we managed to stay upright most of the time. We provided entertainment for people standing on stations that we stopped at, and the glum/bored faces were transformed into big smiles and laughter ... platform patrons, station staff and police all waved vigorously as the train pulled out. It was a lot of fun. Most of us slept reasonably well, and none of us ate the ghastly breakfast that was served at 6am. It was drink coffee or tea or nothing - we arrived in Cairo at 7am. Boarded a waiting bus and set off for Alexandria.

It was a tiring trip as we were weary and hit a big traffic snarl on the outskirts of Cairo after fighting the milling and jammed traffic in getting away from the station and catching the morning traffic through Cairo. The normally 2.5hr trip took an extra hour.

About a 1/2 hour out of Alex, I got Ali our tour "chaprone/organiser" to phone Kerolos my friend with whom 4 of us was going to stay with, or I should say in an apartment he owned and had offered for free.

Kerolos picked the 4 of us up at the Sheraton where the other 1/2 of our group was staying. The apartment was smack in the middle of high rise local burbs. Very interesting to be thrust head on into a culture so different from our own. Rania, Kero's wife and 3 gorgeous kiddies were waiting at the apartment for us. We received a genuinely warm welcome. The people around the apartment block all greeted us with big smiles and warmth. It was really lovely.

The apartment was large and spacious, an old style place, with high ceilings and big rooms, the lift to the 11th floor was quaint with an open outwards door not the standard double door with auto close/open ( I can't remember, if anyone took a photo of it, I hope so then I can post a pic here later). It was great to experience 'culture' at its roots. The Hanna family are absolutely delightful, and treated us like beloved family. We all felt a little teary when we said goodbye this morning. We were well fed, with Rania's home cooking .... yum! we chatted and laughed, and enjoyed each others company.

Kerolos drove us around to see the sights of Alex. the city has wide spacious roads, and traffic is not as dense and crazy as Cairo's which is like Jakarta Indonesia. Both cities are spastic and crazy when it comes to traffic. But I must say Egypt's drivers are amazing, I don't know how many times I put on the 'invisible' passenger breaks and closed my eyes! The traffic and antics of the drivers had us in hysterics at times. The pedestrians all have 90 lives, not just 9, I am sure the 9 are used up by the time they are 5 years old. They duck and weave through wild, mad, push and shove traffic without blinking. I think every single car/truck/bus, old and new, has a dent or 2, it is just the way it is.

Alexandria is right on the Mediterrenean sea, and has a wide road which sweeps around the shore line, it is quite lovely, but there are many old and run down buildings. The city streets are very, very narrow 2 way streets and it is literally push and shove and who gives in first that dictates right of way, So cars are frequently seen backing up to allow other cars through passage. We had to do that a few times and other times we were the victors and cars had to back up until there was space enough to pass. The Egyptians from upper to lower Egypt are very welcoming and friendly people, We have had a wonderful time, not one bad moment the whole trip.

We had a great time at Kerolos's wharehouse, belly dance costumes galore. Lindy found 3 she loved and bought them, Christy found one, Ros found one, and me nothing, but I have ordered a bra/belt set and a black with red beading saaidi dress.

We left Alex at 10am this morning, and arrived back in Cairo after a fast run at 1.15pm even after stopping for a bite to eat 1/2 way.

Great Pyramid Lit Up

We just settled back into the Movenpick hotel ( we are in the same hotel that we stayed in when in Cairo at the beginning of trip). At 6.30 we went to the Pyramid Light & sound show. It was lovely and you could just about imagine the ancients doing their thing around the pyramids. To see the Pyramids and Sphinx lit up in bursts of colour was magic!

Camels/Nubian village cont.....

One of the wall paintings in the Nubian village house

The village itself ... I suppose we would call it 'quaint' but putting quaint aside it is very practical and workable. Very thick mud brick walls are what the houses are constructed of. Straw/camel hair is added to the bricks for strength and insulation. the homes have a central domed roof, to let in natural light and to allow heat to rise and be released. the area the village is situated is very hot. it is 'winter' here right now, and from 11am onwards it is very hot, so hate to think what summer is like. The nice thing about the heat it is a clear heat, very little humidity and if you get out of the sun it is coolish... I love it

Anyway back to the houses. The houses are painted in cool colours, inside. Pale watery blues, kind of a sponge wash look. They also paint the walls with memorable scenes of things that are important to them. Weddings, and other special celebrations and the proudest of all is the Merkaba, which homes proudly paint on the wall when a family member/s perform the Haj to Mecca. One home had a scene of a young boy riding a camel, with the dunes and village in the background. I am not sure of the significance, but possibly the boy's first camel? they learn to ride at a very young age, and are so casual and at ease on the camels. We tourists must provide them with lots of laughs.

The floors of the homes are simply brushed smooth sand. Colourful hand woven rugs adorn the bench seats around each room and other woven decorations are hung on the walls and from the ceilings.

The house we went into had 1 to 2 yr old crocs for show, and I actually patted one. A couple of the girls held one. They had a pet tortoise, that was very cute, also a couple of stuffed animals, a large fox and weasel thing. I hate to see animals stuffed and on display. The energy isn't good, I don't think.

After leaving the village we returned by boat to the hotel. The boatmen sang and played the riq
(a large tambourine drum thing). we sang along and they got us up to dance, that was fun, dancing on a small boat chugging along the Nile.We also did that a couple of nights ago, after having been out to a restaurant for dinner.

Earlier that day when we had been chugging along the Nile to go to the village, I heard this small boy calling and was quite taken aback ... where had the voice come from, I turned around and was surprised to see a small boy holding onto tire slung over the side of the boat ( they use them as cushioning when they dock as they bang into each other to get to moorings). he was singing to us for money. first he asked 'where from? - spanish, Italy, English. He wanted to know the language we spoke. Once he sussed out we spoke English he sang songs in English. It was so amusing, the kids are fearless and enterprising. we each paid him LE5 (5 Egyptian pounds), so he paddled ( using his hands as paddles as he sat on his blue painted plank) back to shore quite happy.

We 'westerners' would be horrified if our kids did a 1/4 of the things kids do here. We just molly-coddle our kids too much I think. Different worlds that is for sure. Mind you Aussie kids have much less molly-coddling than some countries.

One thing I noticed here, is the sand. it is so fine and soft like silk, and a deep goldy colour. being so soft and fine it is really quite strange to walk in, it shifts differently underfoot. It is also in a weird way sticky, it doesn't brush off easily, just clings to your skin, hair and clothes. I think because it is so fine, the silica has a better chance of clinging to the skin that the sand in our part of the world.

We have a beach here in Victoria, called Squeaky Beach. The sand is really white and squeaks as you walk on it, that is the silica content, and it can be kind of sticky as well, it is not ultra silky fine like in Egypt either. The Sand in Egypt didn't squeak, it tends to flow underfoot a bit like water.

Last night we went to a Nubian restaurant for dinner. The food here has been totally yummy, and we have all eaten everything in sight! The salads are so nice I am in my food element;-)

OK that is it for now.... We catch the train to cairo this evening. it is a sleeper. Arriving in Cairo around 7pm then a 2.5 - 3 hour bus trip to Alexandria. next entry will probably be from Alex.

Saturday 17th January

Well we all did it! we rode camels! Kind of scary at first, but so much fun!

Once again across the Nile to the Nubian village area, from our hotel which is on an island in the middle of the Nile. From the boat it is a stp and slippery climb up sand dunes to wher the camels wait. You can hear some of them groaning and moaning as camels do while they sit and wait for the crazy tourists. First you run the gauntlet from all the hawkers of hand made wares - or should I say stagger :-) it is not easy to run in sand - then the 'cameliers' start to call you to ride their particular camel. Of course you have no idea which camel is which or what and just go to whoever calls the loudest.

My camel's name was Bob Marley, and the Camelier Moustafa - but it seems 3/4s of the handlers are 'Moustafa', we haven't worked that one out yet!

It is a bit scary when they stand up, you feel like you will topple right off over the camel's head. You have to lean back as the camel raises up on his front feet, then rock forward and back as he raises his back legs. Sounds easy but it isn't as you feel like you are about to go flying and kiss the sand lol!

When the camels start their lolling gait you have to adjust to the movement AND for us novice camel riders hang on for dear life!

The track they walk is atop of the sand dunes along what seems to be a very narrow ridge. The rolling gait makes you feel like you are about to slip over the edge any second, right into the Nile below! After a while you do relax into the ride ( still hanging on for dear life though!). We rode atop of these tall 'ships of the desert' for about 25 minutes, until we reached the Nubian village itself.

What a pretty 'ancient other world pictureresque place. The Nubians live as their ancestors have done for generations, by choice. They do have the odd mod con, a small fridge here and there, ceiling fans, and in the tea house they have an air con, which looks decidedly odd in such a place.

We all had photos taken standing next to the camel we rode, Bob marley was grumpy when i stood next to him and patted his head, he grumbled and groaned, but lazily. Christy's camel really carried on a piece about the whole affair, they really are characters. Each camel has a distinct personality.

I'm running out of internet time so will edit and add to this later as I have more to tell. I also want to add to an earlier post... until later