A Religious Experience

Our third day in Cairo was, quite literally, a religious experience. We visited the Citadel Mosque at Salahel Din's (or Saladin's) Citadel, the Coptic Quarters of Egypt where the Hanging Church is located, and the Ben Ezra Synagogue. Although 80% of Egypt is Muslim, the country is not ruled by Islamic law. And even though the Egyptian government is not a theocracy, there is very little religious freedom. The government only "allows" or "permits" three religions: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. That's it. And you have to declare which one you follow and it is required to be printed on your state I.D. So if you follow Hindu, Buddhist, Mormon, or Wiccan beliefs, you can't be an Egyptian citizen. Sorry.

The Citadel of Saladin was amazing. I hate that word - amazing. It gets so overused that when it really and truly applies, it sounds so watered down. Saladin, most famously, the sultan who fought the Christian crusaders around 1100 AD and ultimately took back the city of Jerusalem built the citadel in Cairo and had the mosque inside the walls fashioned after the Hagia Sophia.





The Citadel Mosque is no longer used for regular worship, it is more of a historical religious site than anything else. Despite that, all women are required to cover their arms and legs completely before entering and everyone is required to remove their shoes at the threshold.







It was enormous and elegantly ornate. Inside is the tomb of Mohammed Ali. Not the American boxer. The Wali of Egypt during the early 1800's, widely regarded as the "founder of modern Egypt".





Because we were in Cairo during a holiday, there were many local families at the Citadel the day we were there. Lots of children. If there's one thing I've learned through traveling, it's that kids are the same everywhere. It's true. And they were just as interested in us as we were in them.









After exploring the Citadel, we drove to the Coptic Quarters of Cairo. A Copt is a native Egyptian Christian. Copts are Egyptians whose ancestors embraced Christianity in the 1st Century. Approximately 10-20% of the Egyptian population is Christian, about 95% of those belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church and the rest are divided between the Coptic Catholic Church and the Coptic Protestant churches.



We went to the Hanging Church (also known as the Saint Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church), which is one of the oldest churches in Egypt dating back to the 3rd Century.











Compared to the grandeur of the Citadel mosque, this little church was much simpler, but no less beautiful. Sunday Mass is still held in this church regularly (although the mass is spoken in Arabic), and the church is divided into two halves with the men on the left and the women on the right. The original rituals from the very first centuries of Christianity have been preserved amongst the old churches of Coptic Cairo. After spending time at the church and in the courtyard, we wandered through some of the old, old streets of the Coptic Quarters.







From the Hanging Church, we went to the Ben Ezra Synagogue. If Christians are the minority in Egypt, Jews are the minority minority in Egypt. The Ben Ezra Synagogue is also located in the Coptic Quarters of Cairo and according to local legend, it was built on the site where baby Moses was found. The land for the synagogue was purchased in 882 for 20,000 dinars by Abraham ibn Ezra of Jerusalem.

Like the Hanging Church, the Ben Ezra synagogue was designed in the basilica fashion. Photography was prohibited inside the synagogue, so you'll have to take my word for it when I say it was quietly, serenely beautiful.

Also in the Coptic Quarter is the Saint George monastery where Saint George was chained. And the Saint Sergius Church where the infant Jesus and his parents hid from Herod in the crypt.





The histories and the legends and the immense age of our surroundings in Cairo was incredible. Walking in those very same places on those very same stones as some of the most prominent figures in history was very cool...to say the least.

The Other Cairo

Our first morning in Cairo was spent driving to the suburb of Giza. Mohep called it a "suburb", but it wasn't what we would define as suburban. It was just an older part of Cairo on the outer edge of the city.

Driving through the city and beyond the downtown area of our hotel was eye-opening. The traffic was still crazy, but mixed in with the cars, motorcycles and bicycles were people on camels and donkeys. There is trash everywhere and a general veil of disintegration. Every surface of every thing is coated with a thick layer of desert dust. The buildings are stacked upon each other, a filthy, brown Lego collection with thousands of dusty satellite dishes crowding the rooftops.





Many, many of these buildings looked half finished with exposed columns and naked rebar reaching into the blue sky. We were told that people purposely do not finish buildings because then they would have to pay taxes on them. If the building is unfinished they pay no or very little taxes. It seems like a system that doesn't really work for anybody and only exacerbates the post-apocalyptic feel of the city.

We turned a corner in the dusty streets of Cairo and there were the Great Pyramids of Giza. Right there. Right beside the filthy city was the last wonder of the ancient world and beyond that the hazy, desolate desert.

You see the pyramids in pictures, paintings, and movies all your life. They exist as a part of our collective memory. You would think that seeing them in person would be familiar and almost anti-climactic. But you would be wrong. They were overwhelmingly moving and beyond imagining.











The immensity and ingenuity combined with the ancient mythology is unreal. Even though the site was teeming with tourists and souvenir hawkers, it was a surreal experience to stand before these timeless beasts on the plain between desert and city.

Meet Cairo

I have returned. Really. I've just been tragically sick for the past 8 days. The proverbial Mack truck ran over me, then backed up and ran over me again. Fortunately, the flu symptoms have gone - the fever, the chills, the incredible achey-ness, the sore throat - and now I'm mostly just a disgusting mucus monster with my head and lungs full of revolting gunk. Attractive, no?

But since I know you are just dying to see some pictures from our recent trip to Egypt and Jordan, I will oblige and post some for your viewing pleasure...right now. Well, in a minute...

We left JFK around 12:30 am, so the 12.5 hour flight to Amman was spent mostly in fitful, cramped slumber. From Amman we boarded a quick 1.5 hour flight to Cairo and arrived in the North African city of 22 million late in the evening. After what seemed like days of flights, we were taken directly to our hotel in downtown Cairo overlooking the Nile.

Our arrival coincided with the end of Ramadan and the beginning of the Muslim feast. So, everyone was off of work and school and delighted not to be fasting anymore. The city was electrified and buzzing with holiday glee.

Cairo is an odd mixture of old and new. You sort of expect an environment of revered antiquity, heavy with the weight of history. Instead, you are greeted with a noisy, neon celebration. The vehicular traffic is insane. It is joyous and unbelievable. There are no traffic lights, no traffic signs, no traffic cops, and seemingly no traffic laws. It is a complete and total free-for-all...and amazingly, it works. Mohep, our Egyptian guide, told us that in order to drive successfully in Cairo one must have good brakes, good horn, and good luck!

That first night, we just stood out on our 9th floor balcony, weary and dazed from travel, watching the traffic and wincing everytime it seemed death or grave injury was inevitable. Incredibly, we witnessed no accidents or pedestrian injuries.

The honking never stops. It's a constant symphony of every imaginable decible and intonation of a car horn. A language unto itself that is neither hostile nor aggressive but light hearted and even friendly. Mixed in with the traffic cacophony are the human sounds, the whistling, the laughter, the shouting. Cairo seems to be a nocturnal city and people fill the streets, the sidewalks, the bridges, and the waterfront each and every night. Up and down the Nile are flashing neon pleasure boats blasting music and skimming along the water with their passengers. Hovering above all this happy chaos is a night sky filled with glowing billboards.

And thus, we were introduced to Cairo.