Pictured: My new Egyptian friend Stella
Friday (remember, the Saturday of the Middle East) was spent on a voyage to Citystars mall, which wassn't too cultural but was something I was bound to visit sometime. We took the Cairo Metro there, which is surprisingly clean and easy to use. One Egyptian Pound (less than 20 US cents) gets you to any metro station in Cairo, making it much cheaper than a taxi. Unfortunately, the metro only consists of two lines and does not go near too many sites of interest. A third line that includes a station relatively close to my dorm is under construction now, but probably wont be finished for a year. The Cairo metro also has two cars that only women are allowed to travel in, which allowed my female friends to get on a train where all of the mixed-gender cars were full. When my male friends and I got on the next train, we found out that the mixed-gender cars are more or less all male riders when it's crowded. It also turned out that the metro didn't bring us as close to Citystars Mall as we thought, so we had to take a relatively long cab ride there.
Not pictured: The Cinnabon that was right behind me when I took this
Citystars turned out to be the largest mall I have ever seen in my lifetime by far. My Egyptian roommate was surprised when he found out that none of the malls I had been to in the US were as large. The mall has 6 floors of shops, a massive food court, a movie theater, a hypermarket, and an indoor theme park. Nearly every Western food/clothing chain can be found in the mall, and all of the prices are apparently conveniently multiplied by 5.5 so you're not saving money with the exchange rate. We stopped and got drinks at one of the many Starbucks in the mall, which was located next to a Johnny Rocket's that had Egyptian waiters dressed in stereotypical American 50's uniforms. At Starbucks, I guess I made the mistake of attempting to order an iced mocha in Arabic, and wound up with a Frappuccino instead. Although very westernized, the mall was definitely an interesting combination of Western and Middle Eastern ideals in some aspects. For example, every floor contained a prayer room for Muslim men and women, and stores selling conservative Muslim women's clothing would be next to a designer handbag store.
After going into random stores in the mall and seeing that I would not be able to buy imported CD's for good prices at their Virgin Megastore, we decided to get dinner at one of the only Mexican Restaurants in Cairo in the mall. Although my dinner of rice and tacos cost almost as much as it would have in the US, it was definitely worth it as Mexican food is something I will grow to miss dearly here.
The next day we decided to go on a quick excursion into some Cairo markets, which turned into a second visit to the area by the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar. While we took a cab to al-Azhar Mosque, I was not expecting us to visit so many sites in Islamic Cairo that day. We wondered around the area surrounding al-Azhar, which is the most respected and revered authority and institution in Sunni Islam. After walking through one of the main drags of Khan al-Khalili and into a back alley, we eventually lost the tourist crowd and stumbled upon what I recognized as one of the original gates of Cairo from its conquest in the 10th Century.
It turned out that this gate was connected to part of Cairo's original North Wall (pictured above), which we followed until we came upon a second original gate called Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquests). Going through this gate brought us into the main part of Fatimid Cairo, which is a part of Islamic Cairo known for its 11th and 12th century Mosques. Immediately inside the gate, we saw some tourists entering a mosque that was built in 1012 AD, so we decided to follow suit. Entering a mosque consists of removing your shoes and giving them to a caretaker, and if you're a woman, covering your hair with a headscarf.
The interior of the mosque, which turned out to be called the al-Hakim Mosque, was absolutely beautiful and contained some amazing Islamic architecture. It also had a large polished marble floor and unique stone minarets, which are the Mosque's only original remaining feature. We spent a good amount of time admiring the Mosque and taking dozens of pictures before leaving to explore the main road of Fatimid Cairo.
While we did not enter any other Mosques in Islamic Cairo that day, we did walk past several mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools in this case) that have been around since the 11th and 12th centuries. They all had beautiful Islamic architecture, and I was not disappointed by the designs of the minarets, domes, and arches in these historic structures. I think a return trip to Islamic Cairo might be in order in the future, especially since I found out my guidebook has information on almost every mosque and historic site in this area.
Mmmm, Cinnabon... {mouth watering}
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to the Blue Mosque (Sultanahmet Camii), they only required us to remove our shoes and if women were scantily clad to cover up with blue sheets, but they didn't require women to wear headscarves of any sort. There were sex-segregated areas for men and women to worship, however. Is food as a whole cheaper or more expensive in Cairo? A shawarma or something off the street or in a basic restaurant, for example?
Yeah, the mosque we went to had a different prayer section for men and for women, which I think is found in every mosque.
ReplyDeleteAnd food is relatively cheap in Cairo, especially if you get Egyptian food. Shawarma off of the street costs around 7 LE, which is about $1.25, and a big bowl of Koushari costs 5 LE, which is 90c US. Standard restaurants run higher though, and average around 20 LE for a basic meal ($3.60).