Second Day at Cairo

8th December 2009 (Tue)

Rise and shine! Had breakfast provided by the hotel.. mainly usual international buffet breakfast..

But the surprise during breakfast was that we could see the Pyramids from the restaurant windows! too bad we wasn't sitting at the window seats else could have taken photos.. but imagine eating breakfast with the pyramids in view!!

haaha totally didn't expect the pyramids to be so near.. and didn't know abt it too cause we reached the hotel at night and our rooms was facing the carparks..

walk around the hotel after our breakfast..

and of course have to take photos of the pyramids from the carpark of the hotel.. so near!!
As we travelled to other parts of Cairo, again the pyramids came into view! can't get enough of it! :p
While travelling, we past by some buildings which looks like houses. But the tour guide said that they were actually cemetries. However, this places are not only just a place for burial, but family members of the dead actually use this buildings as houses too. o_o

After passing by stretches of cemetries and further travelling, we reached the Citadel!

"The Citadel was built in 1176 by the Muslim commander Salah ad-Din as his fortress on this spur of the Moqattam Hills above Cairo. For almost 700 years, to the death of Mohammed Ali in 1849, nearly all Egypt’s rulers lived, held court, dispensed justice and received ambassadors in the Citadel."

Within the Citadel and one of the main tourist spots of the place is the Mohammed Ali Mosque. This mosque is built in a Ottoman style in the mid-19th century and dominates the skyline of eastern Cairo.

Walking through the corridors and courtyard to enter the mosque..

Stunning interior of the mosque!

The mihrab (prayer niche)..

together with one of the minbar (pulpit)..

Another minbar (pulpit)..

Me with my head covered in a shawl..

Actually if the above photo was taken slightly more to the left, there is an enclosed area where there lies the tomb of Mohammed Ali. But didn't take any photo of it..

Back view of the mosque..

whereby one can get a wonderful view of Cairo!!

We then left the Citadel to the Egyptian Museum.. but while travelling there, there was some traffic jam and it was then that i started learning how to read Arabic numbers through the license plate of cars!

Some license plates of cars! Some cars have actual numbers so i could piece together the arabic to the numbers :D

The Egyptian Museum! No photography is allowed inside the museum but this museum holds the world’s greatest collection of Egyptian artifacts. All the artifacts in the museum are authentic except the replica of the Rosetta Stone.

"The Rosetta Stone: Until 1822, the ability to read hieroglyphic inscriptions had been lost. But it was a black granite stele, discovered in 1799 in Rosetta by Napoleon's army, that held the key. Dating from the 2nd century BC, the stone was carved with a decree by Ptolemy V, written in ancient hieroglyphics, Greek and demotic Egyptian. From these inscriptions, French professor Jean-Francois Champollion was able, in 1822, to formulate a system for deciphering hieroglyphics – a feat that was to unlock much of ancient Egyptian history. Conceded to the British in 1801, the Rosetta stone remains on display at the British Museum in London."

Overall the museum is a little cramped, dusty and poorly lit in some places. But artifacts on display include Egyptian sculptures, statues, papyrus, jewelleries and mummies!

There's a Mummy Room (separate admission charge) which houses the mummies of many notable pharaohs, and there's also a room of mummified animals and birds! Animals were also considered sacred because of their association with important gods, such as the falcon-headed Horus or the cat goddess Bastet. So i manage to see mummified animals including cats, dogs, snakes, baboons and even a 6 metres long crocodile!

Source: http://picasaweb.google.com/dave.hoggan/UpperEgypt2007#

Another highlight of the museum is the room of filled of treasures of Tutankhamun discovered by Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. As well as the famous gold death masks and lion throne there are cases of smaller items, such as the young king’s boomerangs, bows and arrows and even wilting bouquets of flowers that were put inside his tomb. There is also some spectacular jewelry and textiles, including the pharaoh’s socks and shoes.

Spent roughly an hour in the museum before heading of to lunch at Hard Rock Cafe.. buffet lunch again though..

After lunch, we then headed to a papyrus shop, where they showed us how papyrus paper was made. There was many beautiful paintings made on papyrus paper and in the end we bought 2 paintings related to our horoscope :)

Next was some shopping at Khan al-Khalili.. one of the biggest bazaars in the Middle East. There's lanes and lanes of streets selling spices, perfumes, jewelleries, clothes and souvenirs but we only walked a small portion of the bazaar. It was our only time during the trip to really shop and buy souvenirs so it was a mad dash round the bazaar!

After that we travelled back to a place near our hotel again to eat. But it was the worst meal in the trip :p very little choice of food.. but lucky we ate quite full during the buffet lunch :p

sleep time! :D