Cairo & Giza!!

We start June 18th with only about six hours worth of sleep. That makes my count for June 17-19 about 14 hours, but oh what an amazing time I had in those second two days. So many amazing sights have been checked off my bucket list!! Here is the record of the first day of touring Egypt.

First stop for the day is Cairo Citadel.

This is the citadel of Saladin. He built this fortress after ousting the Fatimid Caliphate from Misr. Misr is the Arabic word of Egypt and you see it everywhere in Cairo. Saladin built this citadel to secure his power and protect the city. It has a fine view of Cairo...

After building this citadel, Saladin went on to liberate virtually all of the holy land from the Crusaders, becoming one of the greatest historical Muslim heroes. He was highly respected, and feared, by his adversaries. Kaiser Wilhelm put it this way: "A Knight without fear or blame who often had to teach his opponents the right way to practice chivalry."

Inside the citadel is the famous Muhammad Ali Pasha...
It is also called the Alabaster Mosque because the entirety of the mosque's exterior and interior walls is either composed of or covered with this beautiful marble-like stone...Here are a few highlights of the mosques' inner walls.

The inner courtyard with the central fountain used by Muslims for washing prior to prayer...
Close up of the fountain itself...

Here is the inner prayer room...

Looking up at the dome...

Some ceiling calligraphy...

Two different pulpits for Friday prayers...

After the stop at the citadel we were off to Giza on the other side of the Nile. Giza is the location of the last existing ancient wonder included on the list of seven...

That's right...the pyramids!!! Biggest check on my bucket list. I am still not over my excitement!! That picture is of Khufu's/Cheop's Pyramid. It is first to be built and the largest of the three. It was completed around 2560BC. Let me let that sink in...

It has been standing for nearly 4600 years!! And tourists have been coming to see it for just as long ;) It was built after only about 20-25 years of work. Which is about how fast we would be able to do it today, by the way. Plus, recent discoveries have reveled that it was probably not built by slave labor, but by highly skilled engineers and stone masons. The other two pyramids were built by the son and grandson of Khufu. Both of there pyramids took around 30 years to build, and both are smaller. To top it all off, there is another pyramid built during the same period by another son of Khufu, Djdefre. It was at least as big as pyramid number three, but it was covered in polished granite (not limestone like the three I saw). So, of the three it was probably the most beautiful, and the first target for scavengers. So, in three generations, four pyramids were constructed. Here is pyramid number two, built by Kafre/Chepren, the second son to succeed Khufu. I got to go inside :D It was a claustrophobic, stuffy, & short experience, but it was fun.
And here they all are. From left to right: Khufu/Cheops, Khafre/Chephren, & Menkaure/Mykerinos.
A few of the traditional silly pictures were taken here, you can see one of them on my Facebook profile. Then it was time to travel to the other side of the pyramids for this...

The sphinx was pretty cool, but it doesn't take much time to see it and get your fill. So we moved on to a perfume shop. Sounds rather boring, but it turns out that the shop also has a little glass blowing workshop, so we had a little excitement right at the beginning. They were excellent showmen. "Egyptian hospitality," according to our salesmen/guide, means that we you get something to drink free of charge, and refusing is not allowed. Turns out to be the case in virtually every little shop you go to anywhere in Egypt. After ordering, our guide plunged into a full description of the Egyptian perfume business. Sounds a lot like making spirits, but it is flower juice and sap that the essence is extracted from. Apparently they have a near monopoly on these essences and they sell to virtually every expensive brand you have ever heard of.

From there, we went to a little shop where quality papyri are made. They use real papyrus and showed us how ancient paper was by the ancient Egyptians. First they cut off the outer skin and cut the insides into strips and roll them out...
Then they lay the strips out on one piece of fabric, cover it with another, and place it between the press.
Pretty simple, but some of the results are fantastic once they are painted.

We had an awesome lunch in an outdoor restaurant, then it was off to the Museum of Antiquities, no cameras :( So you will just have to imagine what it was like to gaze at the mask of Tutankhamen and the gold they collected from his tomb. It was very surreal to stare into the eyes of the mask that Howard Carter discovered after a 26 year search. It was also very strange to see the mummified remains of Thutmose III, Ramses II, Nefertiti, and Akhenaten. The museum was so big, and had so many things to see, that you would have to stay in that building as long or longer than you would have to stay in the Smithsonian.

After that we traveled to the oldest part of Cairo to see the Khan el-Khalili market. It has been used as a bazaar almost continuously since 1382.
It was big and crowded, and my feet hurt, so another student and I decided to sit with our guide and Professor Wing, sip Turkish coffee, and smoke shisha in the shadow of Al Azhar University, a seat of learning since 970.
It was altogether one of the most memorable days of my life!!