Citadel and Muhammed Ali Mosque

This past weekend my friends and I went to the Citdel in Cairo. The Citadel was home to Egypt's rulers for almost 700 years and has walls over ten feet thick! Now home to various museums regarding Egypt's military, police, and art history, it is most famous for the Muhammed Ali Mosque within its enclosure. The Muhammed Ali Mosque is breathtaking. It was built in the 19th century and named after Muhammed Ali (not the boxer) who is regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. Muhammed Ali remade Egypt into a regional superpower. He built the mosque to mirror those in Turkey and it is complete with various domes and minarets. The walls are all made of alabastor and inside lights hang in orbital rings. After visiting the Citadel, we went to Khan el Khalili again to finish our shopping! We went deeper into the souq this time and were able to haggle for some good deals.

While waiting for the rest of group to gather after shopping, a woman named Mimi came up to the few of us who were sitting on the sidewalk. I have no idea if anything she said was true or if she was up to something, but she said she was from Saudi Arabia and just wanted to talk to us and hear our impressions of Saudis. She wanted to convince us that they are not all terrorists and that they do have various freedoms. She said that she was from the royal family and had to sneak out sometimes to have fun. She also informed us that she was bi and had a tattoo. To make this encounter even stranger, Mimi then began to make assumptions about all of us. Apparently one of the girls here is a lesbian (which she's not), apparently I'm really sophisticated and care a lot about appearances, and apparently someone else doesn't think she's beautiful. Regardless, it was a very strange but interesting encounter.

After Khan, we took a cab to Zamalek and had a lazy dinner overlooking the Nile. Overall, a tiring, but successful day.

Climbing Mount Sinai thursday night/Friday morning!