The Citadel

The Saladin Citadel is a big fort built on the Muqattam hill in the center of Cairo. It is a beautiful area, well maintained and definitely worth a visit.It contains a number of mosques and museums.

It is also called the Muhammad Ali Citadel because it contains the Mosque of Mohamed Ali (or Muhammad Ali Pasha) which was built between 1828 and 1848. This mosque was built in the same style as the Blue Mosque of Istanbul.

One can get a beautiful view of Cairo from the summit and on clear days can even see the Pyramids of Giza. Here's our guide giving us a history lesson....

 

We got an "official portrait" taken with Appa dressed up as Muhammad Ali Pasha, Amma as Cleopatra and the rest of us as Bedouins!

Al Kalili Bazaar

Shopping in Cairo at the Al Kalili Bazaar is a must! Besides the interesting stuff they have there, it's a lot of fun bargaining with the shopkeepers - they expect you to do so. It's funny how the "starting price" for anything is double of what it's really are priced at. Even little kids, aged 7 and 8 years old, try to sell you trinkets, and have mastered the language of "sales" - be it English or any other. They are able to identify where the tourist is from and we often heard the chant, "Indian? Ah! Amitabh Bachan!!" The Bazaar is a big one, with lots of lanes and twists and turns. One can take a break at the numerous coffee shops or sit near the beautiful mosques for a while and watch the world go by. (While I have tried my best to mostly use the photos I have taken, sometimes I have used pictures from the rest of the family.)