Medieval Cairo

Here are the pictures from our tour last Saturday.  We visited a mosque, a citadel, a market called Khan al-Khalili, and a park. 


These first two pictures are of a mosque built by Saladin in the middle ages.  The outside of the mosque is covered in bricks taken from the pyramids at Giza.  Originally the pyramids had a smooth covering, but due to the building of this mosque they are now more rocky in appearance.

The decorative ceiling inside:

This is the citadel, also built by Saladin, which is nearby to the mosque:

 Inside one of the many mosques which are inside the citadel:

 

A view of Cairo from the walls of the citadel: 

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This is part of the Khan al-Khalili bazaar. It is decorated for Ramadan, which although nothing like Christmas in meaning, seems to use the same kinds of decorations.

This is Al-Azhar Park in the middle of Cairo.  You can see a couple of minarets from mosques nearby, but the most amazing part about it is that it is GREEN.  There is no other place like this in the whole city, apparently, and it only takes about 20 minutes to walk the whole circumference.  Not a big surprise in a desert, I suppose!

A sunset view from the roof of a restaurant in the park.  One of the people in our group (who has been here a while) remarked that this was, "the most beautiful sunset made by man".  The pollution is certainly a significant problem!