In case you haven't heard...

In case you don't read World news, there was a bomb attack in Cairo yesterday at the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, which is always packed with tourists. A French teenager was killed and 20 others, mostly French and German tourists, were wounded. Reports of what actually happened are somewhat conflicting, but the bomb was either thrown from a hotel balcony or planted under a bench right outside of the famous al-Hussein Mosque. Since Khan el-Khalili is so crowded all of the time and has very narrow streets, the bomb, which was reportedly small and homemade, was able to do a lot of damage. A second bomb that did not go off was successfully defused as well. No news reports I've read know who could possibly be behind the attack, but when I asked my Egyptian roommate, he said it was probably "just some fool." Organized and defined terrorist groups don't really stake a claim in Egypt, and terrorist attacks happen less than once a year. However, news sources do report that this attack might have been motivated by Egypt's neutrality in the recent Gaza conflict, as many Egyptians are angry at their Government for not opening the Gaza border and helping the Palestinians. Hopefully this attack was it for the year, as it is already one too many.


Al-Hussein Mosque in Khan el-Khalili. The bottom left corner of this picture is where the attack occurred

........Well now that I have that update done with I'm wondering if I should say that Thursday night I visited Khan el-Khalili with some friends and ate Egyptian pancakes. I've visited the area twice before, and was hoping to visit again, but might not be returning for some time now.

On Friday my Friends and I visited Coptic Cairo, which is located in "Old Cairo," a former 3rd Century Roman Fortress named Babylon. The Copts are a Christian sect that accounts for 10% of Egypt's population, and they practice a form of Christianity more similar to Greek and Eastern Orthodox Chrisitanity than Catholicism or Protestantism. Coptic Cairo is incredibly easy to get to, as it is located right across the street from a metro stop, making the whole journey to get there only cost 2 LE($.36).

The first place we went to was the Coptic Museum, which cost 25LE($5.45) and unfortunately did not allow any pictures. It was full of 6th and 7th century Coptic Christian artwork, which reminded me a lot of Early Medieval European artwork (heavy contour lines and not really shaded). The Coptic Language looks vaguely like Greek, and it was interesting to see the transformation from Coptic to Arabic as the more popular language after the Arab conquests in the 10th Century. For whatever reason, I think it's really cool to see Christian artwork adorned with Arabic calligraphy and Bibles with illuminated manuscripts of Arabic letters.


No pictures :(

The next site we visited was the Hanging Church, which was built in the 11th Century. It's apparently called the "Hanging" Church because it was built on top of a water gate (literally, not Nixon-style) in the old Roman fortress. The church is a major tourist site, as told by the high presence of what were presumably Europeans wearing shorts, and had a large souvenir store where one could buy Bibles and Christian books written in Arabic. Inside, I was once again deeply interested by the juxtaposition (that's the word!) of Christian icons with Arabic calligraphy instead of Latin or Greek.


The Hanging Church

Me inside of the Hanging Church

The next part of Old Cairo/Coptic Cairo we visited was the Church of St. George, which is actually a Greek Orthodox Church built in the early 20th Century. Although not Coptic and not as old as the other churches of the area, it still had a very impressive dome ceiling and interesting Greek Orthodox icons in the limited section tourists are permitted to visit.

We then visited the Church of St. Barbara, which is one of the oldest Churches in Cairo, and was originally built during the 5th or 6th Century. However, since all of the sites in Coptic Cairo closed at 4PM, we only had a view minutes to view the interior before it closed. We also were unable to see some other sites in Coptic Cairo, such as the Church of St. Sergius (which is said to be built on the site where the Holy Family stayed after fleeing from King Herod) and the Ben Ezra Synagogue (where the baby Moses was said to be found- I don't think it's used anymore since there's less than 200 Jews in all of Egypt). Hopefully, I'll get to see these places before I leave.

We wrapped up the trip with a visit to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-'Aas, which was built in 642 AD and is the oldest Mosque in Egypt. While men don't have to dress specially for a mosque and women usually just have to don a headscarf, my two female friends had to wear a somewhat ridiculous-looking shining green cloak with a hood that the Mosque provided, which made them pretty uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure why this Mosque required such strict attire, as my friends were dressed conservatively and the Egyptian women were only wearing headscarves, but luckily I don't think any other Mosque has this requirement for entry. On the plus side, the Mosque was very beautiful on the inside.