埃及 9。12/13/15 開羅 - 下午 伊斯蘭開羅 馬姆魯克冥城

Travel diary day three 12/13

Since our flight was late at night we had a lazy start at 9am.

First stop, the Coptic Cairo! An interesting area. The hanging church was pretty busy with a baptism in progress. The priest was making a magical sound with two metal discs while chanting a tune and circling around in the church. Very fascinating!

The second stop, st George. The third stop Bacchus church, where the holy family spent the fist night after they fled Bethlehem . Last stop, the synagogue. All very interesting! We had a good time here.

Then we wend to the Islamic Cairo, following our guide's suggestion we visited sultan Hassan mosque, one of the oldest. He asked a priest (?) to chant in a high ceiling chamber, we got to hear the call for prayer like chanting up close and in person, the voice is very mystic and penetrating. Then we stopped by the neighboring

Rifaii mosque where the tombs of the last Egyptian king, a high Muslim priest and the Iranian king shah lay. We had a good time wondering around.

After a brief drive around the city of dead, We then stopped by the bab zuweila gate and went in from there to have a long walk inside the old city. Very interesting and fascinating area. We stopped by at a cafe said to be frequented by a Egyptian Nobel prize winner writer. It was crowded and busy. We had mint tea and i for the first time get a shisha flavored smoke. We spent quite some time there watching the world going by. Had a great time.

Afterwards we were taken to the airport. In Egypt the security check was set up as two folds, once before check in and once before boarding gate. Our flight to Aswan was on time, our prearranged taxi ride was waiting for us at the exit in Aswan airport. We paid 120 egp for the ride, a bit expensive but very convenient. Arrived at the hotel passed midnight. We only had less than three hours to sleep before we set off for our ride to Abu simbel!