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!