Cool Weather Inspires Walking Tour

One afternoon I went for a walk to the Citadel, the compound built on a high limestone shelf overlooking the city. Over the past century, through the various rulers of Cairo and the empire, palaces and mosques, including the soaring 19th century Mosque of Mohommed Ali, have been added within the compound walls. Quite famous for being beautiful and overrun by bus-loads of tourists, I have yet to visit the interior grounds. My walk included only the mosques that dot the area outside the walls, through the busy neighborhood streets.

To find all of these things, you can discard your map and follow your nose. I was given good directions to a place from where you can curiously follow the minarets as they appear before you, behind buildings or around the corner. It was too late in the afternoon to go inside, but I was lucky enough to walk past a mosque under restoration. The doors stood wide open; a sandpit spilled down into it, and I left the traffic on the street behind. The scaffolding and dusty rubble didn't dissuade me from shooting pictures of the calligraphy on the ceilings, the molding, the stainglass windows. Enthralled, I hovered near the entrance, a little bit of trespassing into a place that later I could not find listed on the map in my guidebook.

I ended up at two more well-known mosques at the base of the Citadel walls where three nice young teenage girls picked up me and my camera. Kids here are super friendly with strangers and love to have their picture taken, a service I am more than happy to provide in the world of instant digital gratification. After a brief photo session, we spoke in broken languages, and it came clear that they wanted to take me into the mosque, Ar-Rifai (featured in the background of the photo with them). Closed to visitors, the gate keeper took us instead to view the tombs of royals from the 19th and early 20th century.

A nice little tour on a not so hot afternoon! Next time I will have to go during open hours and get a nice somebody to take me to the top of a minaret. In'shallah, they say.