Our floating luxury barge docked this morning in Cairo - the city of a thousand Minarets.
Across the roofs the haunting call to prayer greeted us through the first flush of morning. The eerie sound scattered flocks of pigeons, their wings beating an echoing clamour of noise as they circled over this ancient city that evokes a land that even Aladdin forgot.
Rising up somewhere through the mist to our starboard, were the pyramids awakening from their slumber under a thick dew of mist and smog. Originally, during the annual flooding of the Nile, great locks and canals were built to divert the river out to Giza facilitating the building of these giants. However the canals have long gone - the original tributaries now full of sand and the detritus of a population of 12 million people. The view of the pyramids is now blocked to us and all that we can see are canyons of shanties, slums and luxury apartments crammed together in an egalitarian jumble of joy and despair.
We faced an exhaustive day of sightseeing which amongst other sites, included a visit to the Mosque of Muhammad Ali situated high on the Citadel overlooking the city, its bastion canon pointing ominously out over the megalopolis and its inhabitants. The stunning chandelier and alabaster-clad interior would wow us in a city thats architectural style is generally Islamic or just plain “concrete box”. With its huge vast dome and forecourt - probably the most beautiful in Cairo, it has stood on this hill since the mid-19th century and is a modern interloper in a city that has stood here since it began as a Babylonian fortress.
Below the citadel and jostling against the remains of an ancient city wall, is the vast Khan El-Khalili Bazaar, a jumble of merchandise and artisan studios like you have never seen before.
Cairo is also known as Khere - Ohe or “The place of Combat”. Spend an evening in the market and you will understand why.
The Harvard School of Ali Baba’s 40 thieves, a caravanserai has stood on this spot since the 13th Century and has been a den for all manner of traders to hone their skills of haggling on the unsuspecting browser. It may appear dodgy, but it is a must-do for any self-respecting tourist to experience.
Great avenues of hanging silverware cling tenaciously to wires above a series of cobbled streets and alleyways, ringing competitively against the sound of shopkeepers calling you to view. The smells and sights of the area’s many coffee houses and street markets waft up and around thick rolls of carpet and fabrics, mixing coffee, spices and camel meat in an aromatic conglomeration assaulting the senses.
This is not just a tourist site, but a living, working market where you will be surrounded by the locals wearing Hijab or Christian Dior, Gallibaya or Levis, shopping for their dinner and haberdashery whilst the men playing backgammon, socialise at tables and hapless tourists shop for their souvenirs of their trip of a life time.
Set in one of the backstreets, is the city’s most famous coffee institution, “El Fishawis”. Established in 1773 and part of the life and tradition of this city, the beautiful coffee house is decorated in an abundance of mirrors and brass plates. Populated by locals with thick black moustaches and abundant chest hair, the ambrosial tobacco smoke of the Shisha pipe and the sound of the drums and Arabic singing, spills out of its rooms onto the thoroughfare - adding an atmosphere that Ponsonby Central would kill for. The glutinous black coffee concoction served here in the fine silver Cezve’s will sustain you for hours of shopping in the market.
Once we had stumbled dusty and tired, back through the alleyways of commercial Cairo to the safety of our cruiser, the sights and sounds of the market fading, we relaxed on the top deck of our boat with a regenerative drink on hand, taking in the ancient Nile surrounding us. Low-lying dining skiffs covered in multi coloured lights, floated past us with the sound of belly dancing and the reed pipe echoing across waters that have flowed from the deepest recesses and valleys of darkest Africa since the beginning of time and will continue to do so long after we have gone.
You are told that Egypt is called many things, but sitting here on this great river you can really understand why she is most widely known as “The Mother of the World”.
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