October 6 is a holiday in Egypt similiar to our Veteran's day. It commemorates Egypt's victory over Israeli forces on that day in 1973 in what is called (among other names for it) the Yom Kippur war. Actually, the days following that didn't go so well for the Egyptian forces, but the events of October 6 did result in Egypt regaining possession of the Sinai peninsula and gave Egypt some bargaining power that resulted in the Camp David peace treaty.
Since I had this day off from the university, I headed downtown with my excellent tour guide Valentina:
Valentina is getting a PhD in Egyptology (of all things) and is only in Cairo for a few weeks before going to an archealogical dig in Fayoum, Egypt and then back to Italy. So she knows an awful lot about ancient Egypt and has taught me a lot about the historical sites here.
Our first stop was the Khan el khalili market in Islamic Cairo. I think this used to be an important market for the residents of Cairo, but now it is mostly a tourist trap, but still very interesting. It is a maze of alleys where there are shops selling everything from t-shirts to spices to silver and gold jewelry to trinkets of Cleopatra and the pyramids. Walking around it is really like being in an old movie, because as a westerner everyone is constantly pestering you to buy a watch, look at this fabric, come into my shop, etc. One of my favorite alleys is full of spices so it smells terrific to walk through. Here are some pictures:
After walking through the Khan, we took the Metro to Mar Girgis (St. George) which is the Coptic area of Cairo, and toured the Coptic Museum. One of the most interesting things here is a papyrus of the Gospel of Thomas (one of the gnostic gospels) dating from the 3rd century. So it is one of the oldest examples of Greek Christian manuscripts that we have.
Outside the museum is an old wall that was built by the Romans. Here is a picture of me in front of it:
After the Coptic museum, we took the metro back to downtown and then took a cab to the Cairo Tower in Zamalek. Here are some pictures I took from the tower. This is the second time I have been up in the tower, but this time was later in the day and it was neat to see the sun set and the city lights come on from the tower.
In the picture below you can see the Cairo Opera House:
We walked back from Zamalek across the Nile to downtown via the Lions bridge. That isn't the official name of the bridge, but I call it that because of the lion statues at the entrance, and because it reminds me of the bridge in St. Augustine. Here are some pictures of me by the statues at the entrance to the bridge, on the downtown side of the Nile:
A few days earlier I was wandering downtown just exploring, and I came across this koshary place near Talaat Harb square. This is the place where Anthony Bourdain ate in Cairo on his TV show "No Reservations." (I know because I double-checked the copy of the TV show I have on ITunes.) I haven't eaten here yet, but I will soon. Koshary is a staple in Cairo because it is cheap and filling. It is rice, corn, pasta and beans with a little tomato sauce. I have learned to love it, although I get sick of it after a few days in a row. There is a place on campus that serves koshary, so I have it about 3 days a week. For 10 Egyptian pounds I get a huge bowl of koshary and a bottle of water, so that is lunch for under $2, which is not a bad deal. The 10 pound price is probably high by Egyptian standards, I suspect koshary goes for about 2 or 3 pounds in Cairo.
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