Old Qahira

One of my weekly adventures pre the start of classes involved walking on the streets of Sharia Muiz al Din Allah with a couple of friends and taking out the giant lens to take some pictures. The lighting was obscured by tons of smog, so I wasn't a hundred percent sure what was going on there, and I had trouble balancing taking a picture half in shadows and half in smog.
Again, I wasn't particularly happy with most of the results, but here's what I did end up liking:

Made friends with this boy in front of the Masjid ul Anwar. He then tried asking for money because I took his photograph. I pretended I spoke no English or Arabic and got away, but I was somewhat surprised at how smart he was to beg me after I took the photograph.

One of the store fronts on the Sharia Al Muiz Ul DinAllah or however you spell them. P.S. It's one of the best places in Cairo to buy a Hookah.
There is something extremely significant and important about this building's marble jogging. Additionally it has a terrace, which is also important. I wish that I had a) a guidebook that would help me remember what it was that I was supposed to remember and b) more interest in learning about 9th century Islamic Architecture instead of just staring at it and taking pictures.

Case in point about the hookahs.



I thought this was a beautiful door. I also found a man that told me that for 5 pounds I could go inside and explore, however I was with the lamest group of people and they couldn't cough up 5 pounds to go in with me and were kinda annoyed at how many times I stopped to take pictures. No big, really, I'll just have to go again.

The beautiful, beautiful ceiling was kind of a problem to take pictures of. I wish that I had a steadier hand and/or a shake minimizing lens.

It just amazes me how much detail was put into this building. I wish that I could read Arabic Calligraphy so that I know what was written. Actually, I'd settle for reading Arabic well at this point- and then understanding it before moving to the calligraphy bit.



This was probably my favorite my picture of the day.

Galabeya

Okay, so not my best photographic expedition. The AUC International Student Association threw us a welcome dinner at the new campus. I was rather ill that night, and mostly slept on a bench by a fountain.



We were given free Galabeyas. I liked that mine was sparkly.


There was some sort of Egyptian dance group-


and then some sort of dance party.

Pure and Delicious

This morning I went out to breakfast (craving a bagel) to this place called Euro Deli.





One of the best things about being here is looking at the terrible English spelling you find everywhere. Euro Deli (along with their Snnamon Raisin bagels) sells bubble gum flavored milkshakes.

Egypt Day Three (Headstones, shoes and Fellucas)

These boats are called Felluca boats and I took a lovely tour of the beautiful Nile on it. I loved it- although I was a tad scared that I was going fall off it.



I fell in love with this alley. Isn't it absolutely beautiful. It was found near the grave of Nafisa.



The mosque that Nafisa is buried in.



Just random. I thought it was pretty.

Egypt Day Two (Mosques and Mountains)

Mom and I woke up to a phone call at 5:45 a.m. Apparently Faiz gives you a Fajr (sunrise) wake up call. So nice of them.
I slept in, then went down to breakfast. There was paya (goat bone marrow stew), and so I didn't eat a thing.

We all got on a bus (everyone at Faiz) and drove to Old Cairo. Old Cairo's located inside a fort build around 9 A.D. and there's all these amazing historical mosques there.

We went into Masjid-Ul-Aqmar, where the guy talked (in Lisan Dawat) about the mosques history. I really couldn't understand all of what he was saying, except something about how the "Mehrab" was important.




We got back on the bus, left Old Cairo and went to Jamea Azhar (the Islamic University). We went inside their historic mosque, and the guy talked some more. I was so fascinated with the walls, that I kinda zoned out.


Who knew stained glass was used in mosques? Not me.

Next we went for ziarat and Rasu'l Hussain and Syeda Zeinab again (see last post). It was absolutely awful- we shoved, pushed, and hit our way through the sea of women to get to the zarih. Everyone smelled like they'd never heard of deodorant, and there was so much complaining and yelling that I wanted to simply walk out rather than participate.
Also, someone got shoplifted at Syeda Zeinab; I find it disgusting that you'd steal from someone in such a religious location.

By the time we were done, I was sweating bullets and trying to stay awake in the miserable heat. This random guy on our bus, from Reunion (the French island) came back with sugar cane juice in small plastic baggies. It was potentially the most delicious thing I've had.
We got back on our respective buses and drove to Masjid Ibn Tulun, where I saw these guys climbing this amazing tower.

I fully intended to climb it, but apparently the Faiz people weren't as keen. The tourists I saw climbing it were Polish, and said the view was amazing.

Masjid Ibn Tulun was probably my favorite mosque. This was the entrance to the mosque. The women are all wearing ridas.


The mosque was a huge rectangle with a courtyard in the middle that looked like this:



The courtyard is pretty common in the Fatimid mosques, I think (based on the five or so that I saw with courtyards).
The actual building has these long corridors inside it.




After which we drove around these small small little alleys, then walked up this path and reached these stairs to get to Masjidul Lo'lo'a. You could barely make out the pyramids there- the mosque was built on this mountain where it's believed that God himself can hear all your prayers (I'm not really sure who listens to your prayers otherwise). Masjidul Lo'lo'a literally looks like a tower five stories tall the size of my triple first year at MHC. Everyone crammed into one of the three stories (climbing was awful, stupid high ceilings) and prayed afternoon prayers.

The view from El Mokattam (the mountain we were on) shows these little dilapidated mud houses. Apparently dead are buried in there, along with their possessions there.
I was absolutely fascinated.



I spotted this mosque on the side of the mountain. I think that I'd pretty much love to spend the rest of my life looking at random mosques.



Although parts of going in a large group of Bohras was extremely frustrating -people just complained and were disagreeable about things beyond their control- I enjoyed the mosque tours a lot. It gives a rather different historical perspective in your life when see the original architecture that's been replicated in mosques for years and years after.

Egypt- Day One (Hussain and Zeinab)

Egypt is ridiculously hot and crammed and dusty, but I'm loving each and every second of it.

We landed in Egypt and couldn't find our driver. Mom and I walked around the entrance hall for a couple of minutes, when some random guy came over to us. "Need help?" he said, waving a cell phone in our face. We were both like "Yes!!"
Mom had just begun to dial the number when this huge burly man started hollering and waving at us. We figured he was our driver.
Oh for those of you wondering, wearing a rida is like a flashing neon sign screaming our identity.

We got in the car and began our travels from the airport (located outside Cairo) into the city. There was an interesting moment when our driver exclaimed "Traffic" and put his car in reverse on a major overpass. He then backed up on aforementioned overpass until he found an exit. Then he crossed four lanes of traffic to get to the exit. I was rather amused.

We got to Faiz (the Bohra version of a hotel), and hit up the bed- there had been a screaming baby on the flight, so I got no sleep. After we headed to do Ziarat.

Ziarat's basically a religious visit to various pilgrimage sites. We went to Rasu'l Hussain and Syeda Zeinab.

Rasu'l Hussain's the head of Prophet Muhammad's grandson. He was beheaded in Karbala, Iraq, and his head was stuck on a stick and finally came to Cairo where it is still (believed to be) today.
Most of these tombs are located in things called Zarihs. Zarihs are these huge silver cage-esque things:








You pretty much walk into the place where the Zarih is located, then kiss the silver cage. Well, that's a lie. First you take off your shoes; which involves giving them to an enterprising man at the entrance. At Rasu'l Hussain women are not allowed to touch the Zarih, so we make do by pressing out forehead down on the railing while praying.

It's pretty intense, there's a ton of people, all trying to push to the front to the railing. I've mastered the art of putting my camera in a bag, pressed into my stomach so that there's absolutely no chance of anyone stealing it, and shoving back when people decide to push us around.

When we walked out of Rasu'l Hussain the first time, and went to go grab our shoes from the man, he looked at us and said "Geneeh."
So first lesson; an Egyptian pound is called a Geneeh and the man at the entrance was trying to rip us off. I shook my head (we hadn't gotten money changed yet) to indicate that we had no money on us, and he looked at me (the rida probably gave us away) and started sniffing his hand. "Misk, misk" he said, nodding and smiling, "ITAR." I grabbed my shoes and left.

We got back in our car, our driver was this sweet man who spoke minimal English. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we met up with a youngish couple there, and we decided to share a car. The woman ended up being the daughter of a really sweet elderly couple I knew in Houston. Bizarre small world.

Anyway, between the four of us we managed to understand quite a bit of what he was saying.

From Rasu'l Hussain we went to the Zarih of Syeda Zeinab. Syeda Zeinab (if I'm remembering the history lessons in Madaressa correctly) was the sister of Hussain and she lived in Cairo for quite a while. So, we went to go visit her grave thing.









After which we went to Jame-ul-Anwar to pray. Then we came back and I hardcore crashed.

I love you

Oh, my 1837 family + Becca Engell, how I miss you all.