June 28th-Islamic & Coptic Cairo, Egyptian Museum & Bazaar

After our return to Cairo and a much needed day of rest we continued with a tour in the morning of Islamic Cairo then Old & Coptic Cairo.  We started with a visit to the Citadel, a spectacular medieval fortress dating from the 12th century and perched on a hill above the city.  Also located in the Citadel are the Mosque and Tomb of the great Ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali.  Then we went to the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, notable for containing religious schools for each of the four main Sunni Moslem sects within in walls.

Mohamed Ali Mosque

 

Purification Fountain at the Mosque

Next we toured the oldest area in Cairo where we saw the remains of the Fortress of Babylon. First built by the Persians around the 6th century BC, these ruins are indeed Cairo's oldest original structure. Within the confines exists the Church of St. Sergius, where the Holy Family is reported to have stayed, and the Hanging Church, the seat of the Coptic patriarchate for centuries. 

Citadel-Medieval Fortress from the 12th Century

The Market

The Fortress of Babylon built by the Persians

Coptic Church of St. Sergius

Khan El-Khalili Bazaar in Cairo

Revolution Graffiti 

The afternoon tour included the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, exhibiting over 120,000 objects in its 107 halls, it comprises the world's greatest collection of Ancient Egyptian artifacts.  We saw the treasures that were extracted from the tomb of King Tutankhamen in which we visited while in the Valley of the Kings. It was amazing to see all the items that where buried in such a small tomb and to try to imagine what treasures may have been in the tombs of the great rulers such as Ramses II.  We marveled at the beauty of King Tut's death mask and golden sarcophagus. We also visited the Mummy Room which housed several wonderful exhibits of preserved mummy's they have located.  There is also an exhibit with animal mummy's of cats, dogs, birds and very large alligators.  As cameras were not allowed in the museum you can view photos through many website links such as http://egyptsites.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/cairo-museum-of-egyptian-antiquities/

After our amazing visit to the museum off to see the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar, where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of traditional foods and a very quick shopping experience.  The streets where very narrow and loaded with vendors eager to sell you everything.  We were pretty tired of vendors from our previous experiences, so did not have much desire to shop at this point in our trip (probably should have started our trip there instead of ending it there ;)

This day concluded our time in the wonderful country of Egypt as tomorrow we fly to Jordan.  We enjoyed our adventure in Egypt very much. The people, the culture and the history have enriched our lives forever!!!