Cairo Mosques and Market

In the morning we visited two mosques. The Al-Rifa’i Mosque and the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan.

Islamic art is often geometric given the restrictions against depictions of people and animals.

The Shah of Iran went into exile in Egypt when he was deposed in 1979, he died a little over a year later and is buried in the Al-Rifa’i Mosque along with some of the last members of the Egyptian royal family that was deposed in 1952.

There is always an indication of the direction of Mecca in a mosque since you are supposed to pray facing Mecca. Here is the indication in the Mausoleum of the Shah of Iran:

Here is the indication in the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan:

We ate lunch at a local rooftop restaurant.

The restaurant brought in a whirling dervish to dance for us:

Looking out from the restaurant, see how some upper floors are not complete (in the foreground), but many buildings have several satellite TV dishes on them. Since families live together, for example a set of brothers with their wives and kids, several TVs in one house are common.

We then walked down the oldest street in Cairo, with our guide acting as a translator, talked to folks that were willing to visit with a group of 15 Americans. We visited with a young couple in love. They were college kids and her parents didn’t know yet that she was interested in a boy. Many marriages in Egypt are arranged marriages. When we walked the street talking to folks, there were numerous kids and young adults glued to their phone. Smartphones (mostly Android phones) were very prevalent. We walked through the market and had some coffee, tea or soft drinks at a coffee shop which allowed some to go back and shop for a bit.

At sunset, I was out walking and saw someone having a relaxing sail on the Nile:

Then we celebrated a birthday at happy hour that evening: