Egyptian Museum. A treasure trove of Egyptian antiquities including King Tutankhamun's gold mask and Rameses II's dried up corpse. Located on Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the riots that ended up in that crooked old bastard Hosni Mubarak being thrown out of office in February 2011...the month after the Geezers left for home.
Khan al-Khalili bazaar and the Cafe el-Fishawy. Khan al-Khalili is the heart of Islamic Cairo and el-Fishawy is the heart of the Khan,
located deep in the maze of narrow passageways. Khan al-Khalili may cater for tourists with expensive gold and silver jewellery through to fake
antiquities and tat but the locals shop here too
so there's a real feeling of authenticity, particularly farther afield. An on-foot search for the Street Of The Tentmakers took us down narrow, crowded streets lined with artisans shops, dodging the occassional camel plop and the silent,
electric scooters that possibly caused many of the camels to plop in the first place.
Khan al-Khalili souq dates back to 1382. A labarynth of open alleyways and enclosed passages lined with shops and stalls selling jewellery, fabrics and spices, and all keen to get your business. Two amusing spiels used to try and sell me something: "You cannot smoke here in the street. You must come into my shop to smoke" and the more straight forward "How can I get your money?". The improvisation of one stall holder at Abu Simbel, responding in a falsetto voice to Lyn's shouts to locate Sean with "I'm in here mummy" got a laugh from the other stallholders.
Coptic Cairo. A part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church and the Greek Church of St. George.
The City of the Dead where families, up to half a million people, live within the million or so tombs. Some have been there for generations. Others are more recent tolerated squatters displaced from the Suez Canal zone during the 1967 war or by dislocation due to urbanisation pressures. Although offered the chance to see it from inside the idea of gawping at people forced to live in such circumstances didn't appeal, so we gawped at it from the outside only.
