We only have two full days in Cairo, so we had to take our picks of places to see and visit. The first day we decided to tour the city, the second we planned to visit the pyramids and the new Egyptian Grand Museum that recently opened. We splurged on a professional guide and driver for the city but decided to do the pyramids without.
We woke up early on Sunday as our driver was picking us up at 8.30 AM. The Pyramids Elite Boutique Hotel (every second hotel here has the word Pyramids in their name) had a great view on the pyramids and was within easy walking distance, but that meant it was a bit outside of Cairo city.
We headed up to the rooftop terrace for breakfast and were pleasantly surprised that the indicated pyramid view really lived up to the advertised pictures and we got ourselves a corner table overlooking two of the pyramids. From afar they did not look overly tall but the fact that they looked like someone put them together like Lego bricks was clearly visible and a stunning feat.
We started our day with a traditional Egyptian breakfast consisting of boiled eggs, mashed fava beans, a cheese spread similar to tzatziki but without cucumber, falafel, and a sweet tahini dip, all accompanied by various types of local bread. It was absolutely delicious and, to our delight, we finally had some real coffee! For the coffee enthusiasts out there, Egypt offers two main types: the first is a strong black coffee, brewed by pouring boiling water over the grounds and waiting ages for the sediment to settle. The second is Nescafé, the freeze-dried granules that are popular in many former British colonies and communist countries (Obviously neither of us likes that stuff). Fortunately, our hotel served real coffee, setting a perfect tone for the day ahead.
As it was Sunday, the traffic was lighter than usual as we drove into the city. We picked up our guide, Mary Edward, along the way. We always try to support female guides to encourage women working in male-dominated fields. Despite her British-sounding name, Mary was born in Kuwait and moved to Egypt when she was four years old. She is one of the minority Christians with Egyptian parents and spoke English quite well.
We went first to Old Cairo and the Coptic quarter. It houses some of the oldest religious buildings in Egypt. The 9th century hanging Coptic church is the most famous of them. Its called hanging church as it is suspended over the water Gate of Roman Babylon. All that‘s left of Roman Babylon are two round towers which formed part of the western gate. The Coptic church does contain an 8th century painting of the virgin Mary as the Coptic Mona Lisa and displays very fine geometric designs so similar to the Islamic ones that one had to look for the tiny crosses worked into the patterns to spot a difference. The stairs leading up to the church are a fine work of art in wood carving.
The next church, barely a minute walk away, was the Greek Orthodox church of St. George. All the displays in here were of St. George slaying a dragon. Many of the thank you texts inside the church were written in Arabic, despite this being a christian church.
Next we went to the church of St Sergius & Bacchus, the oldest church site in Cairo, dating back to the 5th century. It has been destroyed and rebuilt several times, and so the current church looks quite new and freshly restored. The most memorable visit is the crypt below the altar, which was once a cave where supposedly the holy family used to take refuge from King Herodes for three months.
All religious buildings were within easy walking distance and so on we went through small little passageways to the only synagogue in Cairo. The Ben Ezra Synagogue. Dated back to the 9th century it now does not operate as a synagogue anymore, as there are only around 100 Jews who live in Egypt now (according to Mary Edwards) and most of them in Alexandria.
By now we had our fill of churches, it was pretty amazing to see that so many religions had lived peacefully together for a long time and that Egypt had rulers who fostered that diversity.
Our next stop is the Citadel (Al Qala‘a). It is difficult to say when exactly it has been built, as it‘s form has changed greatly over the years. The older parts were built by the ruler Saladin around 1176, successors added to it and converted it into military barracks, other rulers added a royal residence to it and in 1830 the Mohammad Ali mosque was built there.
The citadel sits on top of a hill and one has to walk up to it . The first thing we saw was dilapidated buildings that once was a palace. Mary Edward said that the renovations had been going on for ages with no end in sight.
Heading higher up we were impressed by the size and grandeur of the Mohammad Ali mosque with its turret towers and silver sparkling roofs. This is now really the heart of the Citadel and we wandered around and barefoot inside.
It‘s a museum now and religious services are only happening once on Fridays.
This fact, that the mosque is viewed as a monument for the rest of the week is a reminder that Mohamed Morsi from the controversial Muslim Brotherhood had actually been ousted by the military, one year after he won the elections. The military coup took place on July 3, 2013, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. Since then, al-Sisi has been the President of Egypt, having been officially elected in 2014 and re-elected in subsequent elections.
The sheer size was fascinating.
The citadel houses a second smaller mosque right below which is much older but is dwarfed by it‘s big neighbor. The An Nasir Mohammed mosque was built in 1318 and throughout the years had to serve as a horse stable before being converted back into a mosque and Madrassa. We loved the intricate woodwork on the ceilings. It was well worth a detour that not many tourists made.
Last on our tour before lunch was a trip to Bab Zuweila. This is also a hidden gem as we discovered. Bab Zuweila is one of the remaining original city gates dividing the palace district from the common workers district Fusat.
Each day the workers filed out of that gate to return to their homes (of the five city gates only two remain). Bab Zuweila was also used for public executions at the time. It‘s two towers serve as Minarets to the adjacent Mosque of Al Mu‘ayyad Shaykh which is the only mosque in Egypt where the minarets are not inside the mosque.
We had heard that those minaret towers could be climbed and you had a great view from above. We gave it a try and sure enough, we were able to not only climb up to the top of the city gate, but also way higher onto the minarets highest balcony. We had a great view and it was well worth the stop here.
Mary Edward then brought us to one of her favorite lunch spots and we ate incredibly cheap and well. Chris had the yummiest chicken Kebab in a crêpe.
Afterwards we ambled through the side streets until we entered the souk. Like other Souks, this also was a bustling street, not super touristy but stuffed with all sorts of goods for sale. We found some things to bring home, after some hard but fun bargaining.
The last stop for the day was a coffee stop at a heavily frequented square with hundreds of pigeons flying about constantly and dozens of cats sneaking between people‘s legs while they sat drinking or eating. Again we saw another Russian Blue, just like our cat at home.
On the way, we also stopped at a local bakery to get some delicious pastries.
As the day came to a close, we eagerly anticipated returning to our hotel to relax in the warm water pool and enjoy a delightful dinner on the rooftop terrace, with its stunning view.
The only downside was that the pyramids were not illuminated as we had hoped. It turns out they are only lit for significant events and not on regular evenings.
Exhausted from all the walking and feeling as stuffed as geese, we slept soundly through the night.
