" border="0" alt="" />Islamic Cairo: Mosques, Souqs, and Good Eats
Occasionally, when I travel I encounter a place which utterly transports me from the busy western world in which I live, to a timeless setting which appears as if out of a storybook. The most recent place I have encountered like this is Islamic Cairo.
Many may be thinking "Cairo is in Egypt. Egypt is Muslim. So, isn't 'Islamic Cairo' redundant?" Well yes, except, no. The great majority of Cairo and Egypt are Muslim, but Islamic Cairo refers the specifically old-world neighborhood(s) on the Eastern side of Egypt's capital city. This section of town is full of the increasingly rare pre-revolution era architecture that once graced all of Cairo. Its streets are also full of donkeys transporting all manner of goods, young boys delivering tea to surrounding shops, stalls selling everything from shoes to spices, and just about anything else one might imagine.
Emerging out of all this day to day activity that is in and of itself a tourist attraction are some of the most impressive mosques in all of North Africa. Al-Azhar, al-Rifai, and Sayyida Zeynab are just a few of the gems that are not to be missed. These cathedrals of Islam preserve some of the most beautiful works of art in all of Egypt, and are rarely crowded with tourists. In fact, they are rarely crowded at all, a welcome feature amid a metropolitan area of ca. 20 million people.
Outside of these mosques the souqs (both touristy like the Khan-el-khalili and not like the area around Midan al-Ataba) are the best possible places to go shopping in the Arabic custom. Bargaining and then bargaining some more rules the day, and in the end you end up with what you want for next-to-nothing prices, while helping out some less fortunate folks get rid of their merchandise.
Once you get tired of all the sights and activities sitting down in an 'ahwa (traditional Egyptian coffee shop) or at a local restaurant can round out your day. The best dishes to experiment with here are the fiteers (Egyptian pancakes), kofta (minced meat on skewers), shwarma (gyros, döner, or whatever else you might call it), and tamiyya (fried crushed chick peas). You cant go wrong with any of these, and you won't go hungry.
posted by Fran Borchardt @ 12:48 PM
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