Cairo, many people imagine, is simply where the pyramids of Giza and the enormous Sphinx are located. But there’s much more to the city than its ancient Pharaonic monuments. Having done the almost mandatory trip to Giza on a previous visit, some 20 years ago, on my latest visit to the city, I decided to explore Cairo’s Old City, which dates back to the 7th century CE. It is an archaeologist’s treasure trove and an anthropologist’s delight-cum-nightmare.
Lost in chaos
Cairo’s chaotic Old City is definitely not the place for a relaxed, cheerful holiday. But for travellers with an interest in the living culture of ‘ordinary’ folk and willing to rough it out, it is a fascinating place to spend a few days pottering about. Many visitors to the Old City hardly spend a day in the district, but it certainly deserves not less than a week.
It isn’t easy negotiating the place, though. Much of it is a jungle of crater-ridden, rubbish-laden lanes, clogged with traffic and crowds. Little booth-like shops, mud hovels and crumbling houses, many of them several centuries old, line the streets.
Mule-drawn carts trundle past, bearing enormous loads of vegetables, fruits, bread and meat. In dingy roadside cafés, men in Western dress and in traditional Egyptian gown-like gelabiya, smoke shishas or hubble-bubbles, play backgammon, and watch football on giant television sets.
Impoverished children pick through pyramid-like heaps of garbage. There are numerous enormous centuries-old structures around that were once functioning mansions, schools, shrines, and public water fountains, but many of them are in a state of considerable ruin, groaning under thick layers of rubbish.
At the centre of the Old City is the massive Khan-e Khalili bazaar, dating back to the 14th century, with dozens of shops selling touristy bric-à-brac: Pharaonic statues, stone sphinxes, enormous wooden prayer-beads, camel-leather cushions, ornate glass lamps, brassware, the usual Chinese-made knick-knacks that are now almost universal, and diaphanous belly-dance costumes in shocking electric hues.
Little eateries, surrounded by lakes of garbage, do brisk business, selling mint tea, kababs, ful (spiced beans floating in olive oil) and kosheri — spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce and onions.
Anthropologists’ delight
Deep into the confusing nest of lanes in the vicinity is the Tentmakers’ Bazaar, which must not be missed. Here, men churn out leather tents, boots, felt caps and patchwork embroidery depicting Pharaonic themes and scenes from daily Egyptian life. Nearby is what is said to be the world’s oldest university.
Al-Azhar was set up as a mosque and centre for Islamic learning in the 10th century by the Fatimis, a branch of the Shia Muslims, who then ruled Egypt. An ornate entrance gate leads into the massive courtyard of the Al-Azhar mosque whose inner hall is richly decorated with delicate Arabic inscriptions that are carved into the walls, and enormous brass lamps.
Cairo’s Citadel is one of its major tourist attractions. It is a sprawling structure built on a giant promontory, which commands a fabulous view of the chaos of the Old City that spreads out below. At the nearby Bait ul-Suhaimi, once an Ottoman merchant’s house, if you are fortunate, as I was, you could watch — at no charge — a Sufi whirling dervish-style dance to the accompaniment of a traditional Egyptian orchestra.
Christian roots
Egypt was, in pre-Islamic times, a major centre of Christianity, and Jesus’s parents are said to have brought him to the country as a child to escape being killed by Herod. They are said to have stayed in Egypt for three years. Today, around a tenth of Egypt’s population are Christians, mostly members of the Orthodox Coptic Church. Old Cairo’s Christian quarter hosts seven ancient churches.
Gilded portraits of Jesus and various Coptic saints decorate the walls, and unlike in Western churches, these figures look Asian, even African, with dark skins, curly hair and round noses. Incense wafts through the dark chambers of the churches, as bearded priests, dressed in long, flowing robes, lead the prayers in soft, song-like tones in Arabic mixed with ancient Coptic.
In the Church of St Barbara, you can see the steps leading to a pillared underground vault where Jesus, Mary and Joseph, so it is claimed, stayed. There is also a centuries-old Jewish synagogue in the area, a Coptic monastery, the charming Coptic museum, the ruins of a Roman fort and an Armenian and a Coptic cemetery — all of which are well worth a visit.
A stone’s throw distance from the Christian quarter is the enormous mosque of Amr bin As, said to be the first mosque to have been built in Egypt and, indeed, in all of Africa. You could spend — as I did — almost a fortnight in the Old City exploring its many ancient monuments, and getting a taste of life in the streets. But, if you get tired of it all, you can hire a felluca — a country boat — to sail down the Nile, leaving the chaos of the biggest city in Africa and the Middle East behind you.
Fact file
What to see:
Khan el Khalili market is a lovely place to have tea or to walk around. Some nights a week, there are Dervish dances in the mosque next door to this market.
The Coptic Quarter of Cairo is one of the oldest churches in the city and is part of Old Cairo as it was started in the 1st Century.
Al-Azhar Park, Cairo’s largest green expanse, from which you’ll see stellar views of the city.
Food & Shopping
‘Kushari’ is a must-try. The ultimate Cairene snack food, it consists of pasta, lentils, chickpeas, spicy tomato sauce and fried onions, and makes a filling on-the-hoof repast.
You can go shopping in the shadow of Bab Zuweila, or a wander down Sharia Khayamiya — or the Street of the Tentmakers — situated opposite.