Cairo - 17/12 - The Citadel and the Khan el-Khalili

The room was dark when I woke up.  I went down for some coffee and to start a diary.  By around 9, the rest of the family emerged .  

Egyptian Breakfast

We chose the option of an Egyptian breakfast (instead of the European one which we had had the day before).  The breakfast took a little longer to arrive (they had to get it from down the street somewhere).  The Egyptian breakfast was far more interesting and consisted of a number of flat breads  along with faluffels and cheese as well as fruit and of course tea or coffee.


We discussed our plans for the day with Mohamed and he suggested that we take a taxi to the Citadel.  We decided to walk.  Adly street (where our hotel was) leads up to a large square (with a statue of a man on a horse) and then from there you can go in various directions.  It was a little confusing at first, but we could see the minarets of a mosque at the end of the street we needed to take.  

The street began with stamp shops (not the kind you put on letters - the other rubber kind)  followed by light shops of every description and then music shops.  People and cars fight for space on the road and still the old men with their shishas and tea at intervals along the way.


We arrived at the end of the road - about 2km walk - and re-grouped.  A man appeared out of no-where and aked us where we wanted to go.  He told us that we still had a long way to go and that we would have to go through the 'city of the dead' to get there.  When we told him we didn't want a taxi ride, he stormed off.  We made our way to the walls of the Citadel but there was no entrance.  From our map, we worked out that the closest  entrance was to our left so we went that way. 
 A man followed us from a shop and told us we were going the wrong way.  We were heading to wards the 'city of the dead'.  We ingnored him and headed towards what looked like the entrance.  An official looking man came out and told us that this was a government building.  We retraced our steps - somewhat sheepishly passing the man who had told us not to go that way - and we thanked him appologetically.  Not everyone in Egypt is trying to sell you something - sometimes they offer genuine free advice.  The difficult part is telling the difference between one and the other.

It was a long walk around the walls and we arrived at the entrance which was on the opposite side of the building next to a big highway and a long way from any shops etc.  

We got to the teller and I did not have enough to pay.  My tired family were not amused - particularly as Fiona had earlier asked me and I said I thought I had enough.  
The entrance was 150LE and I had 120LE (incidentally our first experience of the need for proof that our children were students - which we didn't have but he accepted them)  I sat them down and headed back to the main street.  I didn't have to go that far as it turned out - about 20m away, one of the sellers of goods (who we had previously dismissed when he tried to sell them to us) was prepared to change some dollars.  We settled for a rate after some discussion (he told me he had to go to the bank, take a taxi etc etc) and for my $50 I got 275LE instead of the normal 300LE but it was well worth it to avoid the continued wrath of my family.

The main sight in the Citadel is the Mosque of Mohamed Ali. (and you thought he was a boxer!)  

Its a huge mosque at the highest point overlooking the city.
  
We chose not to have the tour, but enjoyed the mosque on our own.  After this, we went across the road to the  Mosque of Sultan al-Nasir.  

Mosque of Sultan al-Nasir

Mosque courtyard

Albaq Arches

Even though Fiona, wasn't too keen we decided to also visit the military museum which is housed in what was once the palace of Mohamed  Ali. (she agreed because it was a palace but had to admit afterwards that it was very interesting.  

Turns out he was the commander fo the Albanians who took over power in 1805 along with the Mamluks, then invidted the Mamluk leading amirs to a banquet and then massacred them on their way home.  Nice guy!  He then transformed Egypt into an industrialized nation.  The museum details the battles of Egypt's military history and to some extent brought together much of what we would be seeing in the rest of the trip.

View from the Citadel

By this stage we were already starting to lose altitude, so we bought some chips and enjoyed the view.  Lauren picked up some Moslem literature and then it was out the the car park.  We were too tired to walk back so we decided to take a taxi.  Like everything in life it was easier said than done.  The driver we approached turned out to already have a fare so he got another guy to act as a man to get us a taxi.  The agreed price to get back to Khan El-Khalili (the market and islamic area) was 30LE.  He finally got us a taxi and we were off down the main highway.  On the way, we passed  a big demonstration of people walking the other way - reminding us that there were still problems in the country.  The mosque which dominates a big square is a very important one and no women are allowed into it.  

Before the water battle

There were a number of small restaurants around the square and we sat down at one of them.  After some discussion we settled on Schwarmas at 20LE each.  They also gave us each a bottle of water.   The bill came to 140LE.  The owner had upped the price of the water to 10LE (usually 3LE) to make up for the negotiation on the food.  I had a big argument with him and eventually went off in a huff.

The mosque marked the start of the maket.  At first we walked round the mosque (Guy bought a stuffed camel) and then went into the main market where Lauren bought a cartouch.  This is a small ovel pendant which is personalized with your name.  

After some serious bargaining, we came down form 500LE to 160LE.  The seller let us go up to the jewelry manufacturing factory to see it being made.  Lauren also bought a scarf as we were a little worried about issues regarding head covering.


After that we explored the endleess roads and side roads all packed with people and all sorts of shiny goods, clothes and spices.  This is the biggest market in  Cairo and after a couple of hours there we were sufficiently exhausted to head home (after much discussion about which way to go).  To tired to try anything else, it was back to Philly Pan for supper and bed.