Egyptian musem & Islamic Cairo

The plan for today was to first visit the Egyptian museum, and then Islamic Cairo. So we got up early again, and off we went to famous Egyptian museum. We had a cunning plan to be there right when the museum opened – unfortunately; loads of other people had the same cunning plan! Once inside, Mathilde had the very good idea that we should visit the highlight of the museum – the Tutankhamun galleries – first. This turned out to be an excellent idea – we were almost alone to visit them. Very impressive stuff – hard to imagine what treasures the famous pharaohs must’ve had in their graves, if a relatively minor ruler like Tutankhamun had such riches… I really loved this museum, so much to see. It’s all a bit chaotic (with inconsistent explanations, not always in the same language. In fact, we found one plaque, which was only in Braille!), which is in fact part of the charm.



Having spent a couple of hours there, we got a bit saturated with mummies and other relics, so decided it was time to move on to Islamic Cairo. Disheartened by the previous days’ experiences with public transportation, we humbly resorted to taking a taxi (mind you, taking a taxi in Cairo is not exactly a boring experience either, especially when it comes to agreeing the price with the driver…). We started our exploration in Khan Al-Khalili, which is a complex of tiny streets filled with shops and sellers (basically a bazaar). It really is very fascinating, at the same time extremely touristy, and so typically Cairo. There are of course loads of tourist shops about, but you don’t have to walk very far to find places where the locals do their shopping. I imagine that parts of Khan Al-Khalili hasn’t changed much over the last 50 years (that would be the non-touristy bits).


We managed to not actually buy anything during our visit, but did have to make the mandatory stop at Fishawii’s, which is the oldest coffee shop in Cairo (and fortunately hasn’t been turned into a tourist trap). The lunch in the tourist trap by the main square didn’t impress though… (Islamic Cairo isn’t blessed with very many restaurants).



After lunch, we visited what is possibly the most famous mosque in Cairo – Al-Azhar. It was founded 970AD, and is not only one of the oldest mosques in Cairo, but also (apparently) the oldest surviving university in the world. It was very impressive (and peaceful – which is quite rare in Cairo!) it has to be said – we even had a self-appointed guide showing us around (who made it very clear he was not happy with the Baksheesh I gave him). After visiting the mosque, we walked around a bit more, heading towards the citadel (visiting the Blue mosque on the way – which was nice if a bit run-down).Unfortunately it was too late to visit the citadel, so we decided to head back to the hotel.




In the evening we decided to go for a nice dinner, so we headed to the Zamalek area (which is popular with expats), to a French restaurant called “Le Steack”. Not very original, but at least the food was the best we’d had so far! (needless to say, it probably cost about as much as all the other meals we’d had so far put together, though…). Afterwards we had a couple of drinks in L’Aubergine, a supposedly trendy bar. Nice place, but not very Egyptian (I suppose that makes it trendy?)…