Back to Cairo

It's good to be back in Cairo on a weekend and continue with the discovery of this city that I'm beginning to like more and more. It also means to be back to driving in a traffic that I'm beginning to dislike more and more. Today's itinerary included Sultan Hassan and El-Rifai mosques. The former dates back to the Memluks. It was built in the 14th century and according to the fellow who hosted us in the latter and gave us tea, it's "number 1" in Egypt. It's also shown on the 100 gineh note. The iwans (which are vaulted halls covered on three sides with one side completely open) were really beautiful. El Rifai dates back to only 1912 and looks like was built to model Sultan Hassan on the outside. They stand next to each other, with only 10-15 m between them. I couldn't figure why any one would want to build a mosque so close to another one unless you have an outsized ego so you want make it more beautiful to outshine the older one (which wasn't the case here). We had a private tour inside El-Rifai where there the are the tombs of Khedive Ismail and family. It also houses the tomb of an unlikely figure from the history, the deposed shah of Iran, Reza Pehlevi. Looks like he had a loyal friend in Cairo.

When we were having tea with our new friend inside the mosque, I remembered once again how much Egyptians love sugar. After putting loads of sugar inside the tea, he showed us the sugar container just in case we needed more. For someone, who drinks his tea without sugar, coffee black, and Turkish coffee sade, it was like going back to the childhood times. Still, it was a pleasurable experience sitting in the mosque, admiring the inside, and trying to communicate in my broken Arabic.

Well, no more Cairo for 2 weeks. I'm leaving in 2 days which means a temperature drop of around 30 deg. Celcius which sounds to me like a joke!