Welcome to Cairo, Egypt's eclectic capital! In early 2020, after roaming around the sub-continent for almost two months, I made an exodus out of India and a flight into Egypt. This was my first time in Africa and the Middle East - and hopefully not my last! Anyway, here were some of the things I checked out... Tahrir Square Hurrah. My first morning in Cairo and I was standing in Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Except it currently seems to be under renovation? Something to do with a controversial decision to plonk some pharaonic antiquities in the middle of it. Rather odd symbolism given the forward-looking vision this place represented not that long ago. Egypt’s current political quagmire is something I don’t know enough about. But like the good political science major that I am, just give me some cheap local coffee, a shisha pipe, and a stack of old Economist magazines and I’ll claim to have figured it out in no time! Khan el-Khalili A photo of the most Instagrammable spot in Khan el-Khalili, a famous open-air bazaar in the middle of Islamic Cairo. Not that I’d fall for its wily, hashtaggy, picture-perfect charms or anything. Whoops. I also whittled away the hours with fellow world travellers at El Fishawy, quite possibly the most famous coffeehouse in all of Egypt. Crammed into a narrow thoroughfare in the bazaar, this place is quite the frenzied experience. Street vendors hassle you every minute. Clumsy shoppers threaten to knock over your hookah. The cafe staff seem to be juggling too many tasks at once. And yet, despite the pandemonium, there’s music and laughter and a theatrical, smoke-drunk energy to it all that makes this place unforgettable. Coptic Cairo Coptic Cairo is a hushed and compact corner of Egypt's capital unlike anywhere else in this mad city. As a visitor, it would be remiss to only notice the country's mosques and pyramids — this country also has a very distinctive Coptic Christian minority, making up around 10 per cent of the population. To be honest, I don’t know much about Coptic Christianity or any form of Christianity east of Rome that uses big, scary words like ‘patriarchate’, ‘autocephalous’, and ‘non-Chalcedonian’. What I do know is that Coptic Christians are the largest Christian community in the Middle East. That they follow their own calendar. That they have their own pope. And that, unfortunately, persecution and discrimination against them is a painful, ongoing problem in Egypt. All the more reason for travellers to remember that they even exist. Photos include the famous Hanging Church, the Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church, and the beautiful Church of St. George (which is actually a Greek Orthodox church). The Citadel of Cairo This is a medieval fortification built by none other than the legendary Crusader-stomping, warrior-gentleman Saladin. Although the citadel itself is not particularly thrilling (it’s a bunch of stone walls on a hill), it provides an excellent view of bustling, dusty Cairo and houses the beautiful Mohamed Ali Mosque. This magnificent mosque, commissioned in the mid-1800s by Muhammad Ali Pasha, the founder of modern Egypt, happily rivals many grand European churches. I mean, just look at that incredible ceiling! Undoubtedly a masjid for the ages. The Mosque of Ibn Tulun Commissioned by the founder of the Tulunid dynasty, this is a handsomely austere 9th-century mosque. Sun-starked and shadow-cut, it looks like the parched and lonely background of a Giorgio de Chirico painting. You can also climb its minaret and view Cairo’s cityscape in its dense, concrete glory. A meadow of satellite dishes punctured by the occasional stiletto-sharp muezzin tower. And even more of Islamic Cairo Fragmented, sideways snaps of the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan and the Al-Rifa'i Mosque. Two huge, skyward-yearning mosques standing right against each other at the foot of Cairo Citadel. It’s almost impossible to suggest their volumes and textures through photographs: the gloominess of the lofty ceilings, the rich gravity of the wall patterns, the siesta-like drowsiness of an expansive courtyard... Photos are doomed to failure in places like this. Egyptian food Traditional Egyptian food? Yalla! Let’s talk about it:
And to conclude, assorted views of Cairo and its urban surrounds Many people dislike the relentless, messy hustle of Egypt’s capital (preferring, instead, to blitz through it on their way to the Pyramids and calmer, saner domains). But I took my time with this city and was ultimately won over by its eccentricities. From its languid riverfront to its maddening markets, from its lawless traffic to its unkempt Parisian-style boulevards, from its feral cat hordes to its chain-smoking denizens, from its booming calls to prayer to its slothful shisha joints — oh, I’m genuinely going to miss this place. So farewell Cairo. Au revoir and bshoof-ak ba’deen! Time for me to finally head off to quieter, saner domains.
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Dahab! A famous backpackers haunt on the southeast coastline of the Sinai Peninsula! After a long, bumpy, and exhausting night bus out of Cairo (which included an unannounced 1 am bus swap and multiple security checkpoints), arriving here was like suddenly being tossed into an idyllic mirror universe. Dahab is carefree and beachy in an almost holiday-postcard-cliché sort of way and, in my honest opinion, it is what Goa should’ve been like. My goal here in Dahab was simple. It was to scuba dive in the Red Sea, eat falafels, potter around and read books and, most importantly, mellow out for a couple of days. I think I succeeded. And what is Dahab, exactly? Well, there's a lot to comment on. There are the Russian holidaymakers and British pensioners. The quirky Egyptian restaurant owners and Bedouin locals. The usual-suspect-backpackers and marijuana smokers. There are dive shops and quad bike hires and desert adventure operators. It is a place to indulge and do everything at once and do nothing at all. Pictured below: me with one of my new underwater buddies. Farewell landlubbers! The coral reefs around this part of the Red Sea are superb. During my stay, I obtained my PADI Advanced Open Water certificate, giving me the ability to dive to 30 metres. With my newfound ability, I had the opportunity to explore the Blue Hole near Dahab, a submarine sinkhole with an internationally notorious reputation – it allegedly has the highest diver fatality rate of any dive site in the world. Thankfully, my dives there were beautiful and undramatic. But this marvellous Egyptian story could not last forever. My flawless plan to escape Egypt via a dodgy commuter ferry to Jordan sadly ended in failure. On the very morning I arrived at the port in Nuweiba, the ferry company decided to block all foreigners from boarding due to concerns over COVID-19 (this was just a few weeks before it was officially declared as a pandemic). Disaster! So instead of spending my afternoon eating knafeh in the Hashemite Kingdom, I was stranded in a filthy, dilapidated South Sinai port town. Luckily, I had two equally unlucky French Canadian backpackers to keep me company while we waited for a bus to take us out of the “asshole of Egypt” (their words, not mine). So I wasted a whole day of travel but made two lovely new friends in the process. Hence, this episode is filed reaffirms the old adage: It’s not the destination that matters, but the friends you make along the way! The good news is, I was able to fly out of Egypt and into Istanbul – a little manoeuvre I like to call 'Failing to Byzantium'. Hah. (P.S. As it later turned out, this ferry debacle was due to classic Middle Eastern miscommunication within the company — it has since allowed some nationalities to enter Jordan. Alas, the issue was resolved well after I had departed.)
Behold! Objects from the Egyptian Museum, the Museum of Islamic Art, and the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt’s chaotic, bustling capital. I can't help it, I'm a museum junkie. The Egyptian MuseumHoly smokes, this place is a mess. Often described as one of the most distinguished collections of antiquities in the world, this museum is the encapsulation of “quantity over quality”. It is a sprawling warehouse of dusty, poorly labelled artefacts from across the absurd span of Ancient Egyptian history. Many of its treasures are genuinely wonderful to behold (Tutankhamun's room is a highlight, despite the guards constantly screaming at boomers to stop taking photos, and I thought the royal mummies were worth the extra ticket), but as soon as you venture beyond the main wings you’ll find yourself lost amidst rundown display cabinets filled with scrolls, coffins, amulets, tablets, sarcophagi, jewellery, and the like. Good stamina is a must because if you aren’t battling through the noisy tour groups, or navigating messy construction areas, you are trying to wrap your head around whether this or that relic is from the New Kingdom or the Third Intermediate or the Middle Kingdom — or whether you actually care at all! So what did I personally learn from this neglected stockroom? I learnt they were obsessed with symmetry, with flatness, with the serenity of the face. Power was everything and submission to it was everything else. Death constantly preyed on their minds, as did bounteous harvests and feasts of plenty. Before anyone else, they had mastered the art of shaping stone as though it was an afterthought. Their writing system was both sacred and a toil. Endurance was their one true god. Their entire civilisation was devoted to creating objects that would last a thousand dynasties. Even when they were ancient, they knew their ancestors were more ancient still. Please note: the woeful state of the Egyptian Museum will hopefully not continue. A brand new archaeological museum is scheduled to open in Giza later this year and will, for all intents and purposes, replace the current site. So it's likely that I was one of the final 'seasons' of tourists to have faced the disastrous, old-school Cairo museum experience. Lucky me. The Museum of Islamic ArtAccording to the Wikipedia page, which was undoubtedly edited by someone working there, it is “considered one of the greatest in the world”. Yeah, it’s pretty great (although the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia gives it a run for its money). It certainly made me want to see more Persian stuff. And I felt like I could’ve stared at some of those geometrical designs for hours on end. After visiting the Giza Pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, this place was an oasis. Clean, quiet, fascinating, and totally hassle-free. Best of all, I received a free guided tour by a Cairo University student who was volunteering at the museum for course credits. Check this one out, art history nerds. There were, like, no other visitors in the entire building. My guess is that the museum fell off everyone’s radar after it was heavily damaged by a car bomb in 2014 that was targeting the Cairo police headquarters across the road, shutting the place down for a couple of years. But it’s been completely renovated and — judging from the large numbers of heavily armed policemen in the locale — in slightly safer airs at present The Coptic MuseumIt’s a “comfy” museum that showcases a cross-section of Egypt’s Christian art across the centuries. Why do I say comfy? Because of how adorkable early Coptic paintings were. Not the most clever analysis, I know, but look at those big, childish eyes and bold, crayon-like streaks. I love it. The most significant thing in the Coptic Museum is perhaps something that isn’t a painting or a sculpture: the “Gnostic Gospels”, a set of 4th-century manuscripts hidden in a clay pot that two Egyptian farmers accidentally found in 1945 while digging for fertiliser. You remember The Da Vinci Code, right? These manuscripts are where that novel got many of its kooky ideas from and where your weird New Age aunty probably got some of hers. They’re full of the more fun, mystical, and esoteric ideas that early Christian sects developed before they got stamped out for heresy
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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