Moslem Sites in Cairo

One thing that I didn't get to blog about while in Cairo was the beautiful mosques we saw in Cairo.

We had seen some mosques, including the Blue Mosque, in Istanbul, but they didn't really do much for me.

In Cairo, on our first complete day in Cairo, we started our day at the Mosque of Ibn Tulun.  It dates back to 879 A.D.  It has a certain elegance and simplicity to it, which is often the result of spending less and focusing more on quality.  Beautiful place.  It is on one end of medieval Cairo, so we proceeded to walk all the way through medieval Cairo.  We were walking on basically a continuous market street, with us ending up in the main market area.  In the walk you could see the changes in the wealth of the community.  We started in a very poor area.  We were clearly strangers.  The community was active and people clearly were enjoying life.

The street had people, donkeys, bikes, three wheel scooters, motorcycles, cars, etc.  Vehicles communicated by honking horns.

Amazing vibrancy.

Eventually, we were overlapping with areas in which tourists frequented, which substantially changed the nature of the products being sold and the interaction with the vendors.  Rather than being left alone, we were hassled quite a bit.  Still these areas were areas that were predominantly serving the local community with some minor sales to tourists.

We came back into the area the following day and continued our walk North all the way to our hotel.  The market activity continued all the way to our hotel in a more middle class area.  Amazing the amount of commerce occurring on the street.

We are now in the Medina in Fes, Morocco.  It too is a vibrant market area.  Clearly the people live here.  What is being sold is mostly for the locals.  The quality of goods seem to be much better in Fes, as well.