Fortress me

We made our way zigzagging the ever-complicated Cairo street system. Going from firstclass, what's considered restaurant district because everyday people don't go there. Down through the immigrant potholed 'hood staring up at the highrises each floating in its own colored style, aging design, hanging clothes, and what poverty says about the hodgepodge of balcony belongings. The ride left little doubt that this is where the extras are kept--built for maybe 2 or 3 million Cairo is now housing over 25 million people (due to immigrants and rural exodus; the same problem exists in Dakar). But it was former glory we were after: The Citadel. Hardly the warring enemy or potential assasins, we had to hike the length of this fortress and its gates before we found the way in. Most of the former palace is in ruins, but mosques and buildings that now house museums still stand. But, really, most of the fun is just getting to the top and staring out over Cairo -- the faint and tiny pyramids on the horizon, government housing at our feet standing out in its whiteness, and the tiny Bab Zwella towers we climbed the other day thinking we were so tall. One museum about assasinations during the British occupation of Egypt. One museum about military history which was a bit like reading a government propaganda manual--Mubarak is the greatest! Again, it was the view and the arches that I liked, plus reading the funny English plaque translations and misspellings,"A bamb (bomb) used in 1957 war." Or this, "Tank made by the USSB (USSR)."

Cairo city view.

Mohmed Aly Mosque

Lights and tourists galore inside mosque.

Standing at the ablution fountain (where muslims wash before praying).

Two blondes under a tree and Cairo in the background.