A walk through Islamic Cairo

I know how to upload pictures, but apparently forgot how to type. Or I'm just loaded with so much work that I neglect posting. Just today we were laughing with other students in the group that we starting to forget English while learning too much Arabic.Now we have in our little ditzy heads with a mess of escaping English and not enough of Arabic -which leaves us mumbling. 

Let me present to you Islamic Cairo - a historical city, where it all started. The city of Cairo itself, that is. Back in its glory days this part of a city was a military settlement for various conquerors - Fatimids, Mamluks and other dynasties. Still standing and functioning are mosques from 12th century, there are shops where traders from faraway places would sell and buy perfumes, spices and textiles. Rulers of medieval Egypt would build their magnificent palaces, consecrate monumental mosques with minarets piercing the skyline. Wow, I am getting too historical.   Pictures!

I found this stucco windows simply amazing, don't you agree? There is so much details in the smallest things.

Ibn Tulun Mosque to the left, is incredibly quiet inside because of the large outside yard and enclosing walls

Visitors get boot covers, that instantly make a James Bond-wannabe security guy look like he's ridiculous. And they sure warm your feet on a cold Cairo morning. Hey, do you also cringe a little?

Beautiful light patterns from stucco windows.

The view from Ibn Tulun Mosque, so peaceful. I feel that I should always keep this picture close to me, so that when I get too agitated I will look there and calm down.

Thousand and one lamp.

A pic from a vantage point, everyone was squatting awkwardly in that corner.

Yet another mosque.

Islamic architecture is so often excluded from the discourse of architecture, or even medieval architecture. Throughout my laywoman life I never thought that mosques could be so beautiful and so smart. I mean, I understand if Belarussian architectural heritage gets excluded (they live in mud huts, you see) for it being so muddy, but Islamic architecture is so rich and way more distinctive than mud huts.

Hey to you all! My semester is almost over and I am not sure if I post anything else. I feel like I should, right? Just to finalize it. And we have been to so many places, I absolutely must tell you about. And I will climb Mt.Sinai. And I will post the last one, when I'm get back! 

More of Luxor

You already know how people in Egypt are very casual about their riding habits. These boys look like err I don't remember what they are called. You know what I'm talking about - those boys/ lackeys who ride behind the horse-drawn carriage? I caught them on the road to the West Bank of Luxor.

Going back to the temple of Luxor - I believe this is Ramses the Pharaoh who loved and respected his wife so much that he placed her statue in front of his statue. The regular rule of thumb was putting her behind or next to the pharaoh's leg. In case if you do not see what I'm talking about - the midget is the wife and the imposing guy with hands crossed is the pharaoh.

Walking around the Luxor temple. The place was so crowded I was just glad to see less people in this area. Probably everyone was in the "towlet". We were advised to always carry some tissue with us, since toilet paper is a rarity in Egypt's bathroom. Otherwise there is a bathroom attendant monopolizing the toilet paper roll and asking for a pound or two. But even if you are not using toilet paper, give her/ him a pound. They earn so little that every pound is like a fortune to them.

I mentioned before that I was bored with old ruins and temples and stuff; this guy shares my opinion. He is one of the numerous tourism police officers flooding touristy places

                                              

I can't stop being amazed at local animals. They find food everywhere! Those donkeys were grazing on what seems to be dirt and gravel.

I am done with my report on Luxor now. You can find way better and informative pictures and descriptions. 

Soooo

Yesterday we were supposed to go through Zabaleen district - one of the most intriguing places I heard of so far. The district bears its name from Zabaleen people - they belong to the branch of Coptic Christians. From the time they moved to Cairo from rural areas their main way of subsisting was collecting trash from the streets of Cairo, taking it back to their district on donkey carts and processing it with their whole family. Some  families specialize in aluminium cans, paper, metal or plastic, which they then resell to the middlemen companies. The organic waste is fed to pigs which is their main source of protein. To add to their misery, the city government ordered all pigs culled because of ... swine flu.  Now people are basically starving. Oh wait and in the past years the government decided that Zabaleen ways of collecting garbage are not modern enough and donkey carts interfere with crazy traffic in Cairo, so they hired western companies to manage garbage pick up and processing. Many Zabaleen people had to move back to rural areas due to these factors. Fact: western companies recycle up to 20% of garbage (there is no trash separation in Egypt) compared to 80 % that Zabaleen were able to process. Also the trucks of the western companies do not fit in Cairo's many narrow streets and they had to set up garbage bins on wider streets, so the residents have to walk there instead of putting their garbage in front of their buildings. Mane residents are too lazy to walk too far so the garbage just sits there and rot, creating more infections and health hazards. 

The most boring ruins in the world

Just let me let it out. Ruins are boring. I assure you that the most exciting, amazing ruin in the world is ruined when you know nothing about it. Well, we were informed about the must-know data on Luxor temples plus a little bit that a regular tourist is expected to know and say when showing pictures to his/her friends.
  Personally, lately I have been noticing that works of nature impress me far more than anything that humans can build. Nature does not shove its beauty in your face, it just sits there waiting for you to discover it. People pay tribute to their vanity and desire to amaze the rest of the world.
  Enough of whining, picture time!
  This is just a teaser for the rest of splendid Luxor - a snap of foggy ridges of Upper Egypt. Funfact: Did you know that Egypt is divided according to the flow of the Nile? Cairo is in Lower Egypt because Nile ends there, and Luxor and Aswan are in Upper Egypt, close to the Nile's origin.

Statues of rams guard the doors to the entrance of Karnak temple. Ram was chosen to be the it animal of the pharaoh who built it, because of ram's ability to copulate for up to ten times a day. Yes, everything is about sex.

Sex and money. But sex and money are connected in way that people strive for wealth in order to get more sex. So here you go. While shuttled to and fro between various temples and tombs, we stopped to see a masonry souvenir shop. The fella holding an alabaster jar demonstrates the process of working with it. First, the stone is roughly processed to give it conical shape, or whatever shape you want. For the second step the stone is drilled from inside in case if you are making a jar, then polished for a little while and then polished until it's perfectly smooth. But that is not as note-worthy as amazing artistic impressions on the walls. I kid, I kid. I was troubled by the way the workers were treated. The jar-holding fella would yell at and boss around the guys in a totally dehumanizing way, which he apparently thought to be funny and entertaining. See how happy those guys are?

Alright, done for tonight. Wait for more awesomeness and embarrassment!

Saqqara and Dashur pyramids

Before flooding this blog with pictures and blabbing about Luxor, let me revise our visit to other pyramids.
   I will just assume that your ignorance level is about same as mine, and you also did not know that Egypt has more than three pyramids in Giza, where all the pictures are taken.
  There are 138 pyramids discovered in Egypt, but the most well-known are these three from Giza: Khufu (also the biggest one), Khafre and Menkaure.
  But the oldest ones are found in Saqqara. This is the shadow of the pyramid build in 2630 BC.

 And this is the pyramid itself. Tada! We climbed inside through the opening in the middle.

I missed working out in Cairo, so the ancient Egyptian gods heard me complaining and gave me a workout in a form of crawling inside the pyramid for 20 minutes. Before you climb in, you are greeted by an ancient looking dude in galabiya who will ask for money on your way back. There was not much to see inside. And the smell of sulfur was strong enough to divert other explorers from going further.

Next one was a pyramid in Dashur, also known as a step pyramid. The tour guide explained all the regular historical chutzpa about how it was built, etc. I remember nothing, and you will not benefit from knowing how tall it is and on what occasion it was built. It is enough to know that anything taller than 20 feet was built to satisfy pharaohs vanity.

  The step pyramid partially obscured by a giant camel's turd and a pretty cloud.

We proceeded to yet another memorable site. Are you excited as I am? Prepare to see Titi Pyramid! Mereruka Tomb! And another tomb!

Alright, we are done with the "must-see" part. And here are sad underfed horses apparently eating cement and dust. I hope in next life they will return as the happiest creatures in the world.

 A group of disturbed Egyptians surrounded this building and kept yelling and pounding on the closed doors and windows. Hope this is where the horse owner lives, but highly doubt it. These people have more important things to be concerned with rather than rioting against animal maltreatment.

This is what we listen to every day on the van while being shuttled back and forth. A sheesha!

Promise to write about Luxor in the next blog. And in the next-next one will be a tour of Islamic Cairo - amazing architecture!

Quick update upon return from Luxor

I just came back and have to catch up on so many things so I will be brief. Luxor was ...eh, beautiful? I have never been more tourist-y than here, in Egypt. I took measures to avoid it, like wrapping my phrasebook and travel guide in a Spongebob wrapper and not bringing a tourist backpack with ten thousand pockets. I have to admit that being a tourist from a first-world country on an arranged tour has its advantages: transportation is taken care of, guides lead you from ruin to ruin explaining everything in a perfectly broken English: "and them pharaohs put them cartouches on them necks like zis!". But we were terribly rushed at the sites, since the local guide (not our Cairo program coordinators) cared more about herding us into a souvenir shop so he could make a commission. So for one of the temples we had exactly ten minutes! No time to just walk around and enjoy the views, sigh. I will just get home and Netflix all the National Geographic documentaries.
    I will post pics from Luxor about a cross-dressing pharaoh and an ancient gym + more ancient stuff in details soon. Stay tuned!

PS: Since you blockheads can't live without pictures here is one of the hall in Cairo University where Mr.Obama gave his speech:

  

So tired

Can I say something? I am sooo tired.Today we had a free evening, kinda, so at about 6pm after an islamic feminism lecture wanted to check out a local bar. None of four people wanted to do it when we met at 9pm. Ahh, you wanna hear more about islamic feminism, you say! With all the preconceptions you have in your little ignorant heads, you would say that notion of islamic feminism is an oxymoron. Well, islamic feminism does not want equal RIGHTS for women, it wants equal JUSTICE. Which I still do not get. For a muslim, the most important thing is piety and following the word of god. So you have to follow it, even if you do not like it. Muslim feminists work on reinterpreting the verses of Quran that have been misinterpreted by patriarchal a-holes. 

Polygamy! Egypt is a secular country that incorporated sharia laws; they apply only to family matters. Sharia is a set of laws, drawn from verses of Quran; basically sharia represents about 20% of Quran. Prophet Mohamed advised men to marry up to 4 women, if they are widows or orphans in order to help them. Still, none of muslim women I talked to, want to share their husbands/ future husbands and would divorce in case of another woman appears. 

Random time! There is many super-old cars polluting Cairo streets. I thought this one was a Zhiguli, but it is actually a Peugeot, one of the most popular cars. Egyptians say "Bejo", as there is no sound 'p' in Arabic. Blease leave your comments on this bage if you think that Lady Gaga's bobularity will be over soon.

Horse tour guides demonstrating how to ride a horse like a real man.

Hungry Cairenes at lunch hour. Tip: If you want to tip someone, shake their hand and discreetly slip the money, spy style. Otherwise it is offensive to just openly put it in their hands.

 Here is a zebra skinned and painted red for aesthetic purposes.Actually I don't know what animal is that. Do you know? And it is not donkey meat.

Right next to the meat place is this glamorous store selling chandeliers? They definitely try to diversify shopping experience.

I've heard they have good silver jewelry here. Send your orders!

Reflections and things

Sabaah el kheir! Morning of charity!

Guys, from now on I pronounce this blog to be totally random! 

Some foreign girls I spotted in Zamalek bar on New Year's Eve. Mini-vuvuzlelas were distributed and actively used. Everyone was dancing and singing all night, not minding the perfumed snow foam sprayed in the air.

Days later we were invited to the house of the guy who helps with arranging our transportation around Cairo and millions of other things. It needs to be mentioned that all tourist groups of more than, like, 7 people, must be escorted by gun-bearing security guard while in vehicle. Another day while in Arabic classes school I needed to get water and was going just across the corner, when my language instructor and school supervisor stopped me and insisted she goes with me. They explained it is done for security purposes. 

    Abduh (million things guy) and our lecturer / tour coordinator have know each other for twenty years! It is so cute to see them call each other habibi and kiss on cheeks, which is how Egyptian friends greet each other. His wife prepared turkey dinner for us! Delicious! I can't say I am in love with Egyptian food yet, but this stuff was so hearty!

 We had lunch, left and while waiting for the minivans to pick us up watched cart vendor walk on street and offer bananas and oranges for sale.

 We have ten minute breaks between Arabic classes and use it to practice conjoined twins dancing and also to warm up our rapidly cooling bodies. The houses in Cairo are built of stone and have granite or marble floors. Incredibly cold inside (. But must feel nice when Cairo is at its hotttest  - up to 40 degrees in July.

 Today I went to an old restaurant in Zamalek, it opened in fifties and still retains the aura of those glorious times. You can see European influence in paintings on the walls. The waiters think they are still in the past century and moving with according speed. As everybody says, everything is happening according to Egyptian time, which means who knows when your food will arrive and that tea takes 15 minutes.

Our tea came in a little enameled pot with fresh mint leaves. Total bill for two was 150 Eg pounds (24 US $), including tax and services. We had two soups, three small apps and tea.

Haven't figured out what that TNT meant 

After that lunch buses hauled us to Cairo university,  one of the most famous and prestigious higher ed institutions in Arab countries. Boutros Boutros Galy was a graduate, among other notable figures. Here Obama gave his infamous speech, which gave hope for change in US-Arab relations. Students of the university were kind enough to come to talk to us on various topics ranging from US-Egypt relations to sexual harassment. That was one heated discussion!

The university is public and as all education in Egypt is free.

 And a random pic after visiting the Giza pyramids: Mostly there are boys and men selling tourist trinkets, but I saw this little girls follow us for a while with their postcards. Economy of Egypt heavily depends on tourism and the inevitable globalization haven't anyone untouched. That's a Pizza Hut franchize in the background with a pyramid reflecting in the window. I go to buy some snacks in the supermarket around the corner from the hotel, and most of the packaged stuff is either US or European brands: snickers, Trident, clothing, ahh everything! Egypt with its underdeveloped economy is the largest importer of foreign goods.

Sabaah el noor! Morning of light!

Bab Zwayla mosque and pure randomness

Hello, cats and kittens! Check out this chef de cuisine mastering his kebab skills. We went to this restaurant and waited forever to get our food out. And those who got food were not very adamant about it. Shwarma turned out to be nasty meat with mayonnaise on a hot dog bun. I only got half of my order - foul - which is pretty much refried beans. Meh... I liked the first three spoonfuls, but it was too salty and lacked kick, so I just sat staring at people's mouths. 

The rest of this post will not be random! 

On the nth day we visited Bab Zwayla and its vicinity. It was fascinating to see Bab Zwayla -one of the ancient gates that surrounded area where royals lived. I shamelessly quote Wiki, since my brain refuses to absorb enormous amount of info it gets on a daily basis. "The city of Cairo was founded in 969 as the royal city of the Fatimid's Dynasty. In 1092, Badr al-Jamali built a second wall around Cairo. Bab Zuweila was the southern gate in this wall. It has twin towers (minarets) which can be accessed via a steep climb. In earlier times they were used to scout for enemy troops in the surrounding countryside, and in modern times, they are hailed for providing one of the best views of Old Cairo."

Nowadays the area is populated with the poorest people of Cairo. Esh baladay (~ pita bread) is sold on the street, just scattered on a weaved papyrus platforms. Here is a guy riding with empty containers on his bike.

Did I say that Cairo is extremely polluted? All the landscape pictures I am taking come out dusty blue color because of the constant smog blanketing the city. I say it just adds to its mystery, like Cairo is hiding its secrets from strangers on this fog. 

   The views from the Bab Zwayla gates were beautiful. You have to be right there to really appreciate the glory of the opening view. Or I should be taking better pictures.

 Cairo is called A city of thousand mosques (I am probably totally misquoting), but you can see how thin towers of minarets pierce the skyline.

Here is the view from another side. It is touching to see rubble and deep poverty right next to glorious ancient buildings. Regarding garbage. Apparently there is little regulation of municipal services on garbage pickup in this and other impoverished areas, that people just throw their garbage on the roof. They don't take their chances with hoping that garbage will be picked up if left on the street. Also I spotted goats roaming on the piles of garbage. They can be barely seen on the bottom of the pic. Get your looking glasses ready!

A picture of a person simultaneously taking a picture of a person writing this very blog. Yay!

Adjacent to the ancient gates is one of the most beautiful mosques I have seen ever. Also this is my first time visiting a mosque.

A dude self-transporting an ancient rug.

This niche directs the people to pray in the right direction.

Some gal sitting on the ancient rug. White patterns also direct towards Mecca.

Soon people started coming for the noon prayer. This is the inside yard of the mosque. It is incredibly peaceful to just sit in this quiet sunlit inner yard and reflect on how many people are reading my blog and other vital issues. Of all buildings related to various confessions this was the most pleasant to be in.

And then we left. On the way home we saw: cotton sold in bulk.

Mom and her little helper navigating bazaar

Another mom carrying her child. I see women carrying their kids like that all the time.

Ma salama!