Islamic Cairo

Today we went on a walking tour of Islamic Cairo. As my friend Ralph said "what do you mean? Isn't all of Cairo Islamic??" Well, sort of...the area where we were today refers more to "Old Cairo" in terms of architecture and culture. So there are many markets and street vendors. Our tour guide from the university is amazing. It's the same woman who took us to the pyramids and she is just so full of knowledge and information. She felt that in order for us to get a true sense of the different types of architecture, we should visit many different types of buildings. We went to a Al-Azhar Mosque, Madrassa and Mausoleum of Barquq (school), an old merchant hotel, a sabil-kuttab (public drinking fountian and Quranic school) , and Beit el-Suhayami which was a traditional family mansion. They were all lovely and everyone kept remarking how much the new campus has been modeled after this type of architecture. It was another hot day, and we were pooped by the end for sure, but it was a great outing. As usual, I think the pictures speak for themselves...

We're headed back out there tomorrow night since it's our last chance to experience Islamic Cairo at night during Ramadan. It ends on Tuesday and we'll be in Turkey!