Cairo Day 2, Don't Stop the Mosque-ing

Our second morning, we headed to Coptic Cairo, home to various Coptic Christian churches. We didn't even know 'Copts' existed, but apparently they're Egyptian Christians that split from the Catholics back in the day. The most notable of churches here are the Hanging Church and Saint Sergius, where Jesus is said to have stayed. These structures date to the 3rd century, but have been rebuilt time and again so it is difficult to know hold old any of it is. We enjoyed the amazing detail in the patterns, but didn't spend too much time here.



Next, we returned to Islamic Cairo, stopping at the Citadel which for 700 years protected the ruling Fatimah party. Originally constructed to protect against invading crusaders, the Citadel now is best known for housing the Mohamed Ali Mosque. Although this one is only about 200 years old, the people here love it and have placed it on some of their bank notes. We found the scale and outside of it impressive, but the inside lacked the details of other mosques we've seen. The limestone used to construct this was actually taken from the outer layer of the Pyramids of Giza in the 1800s.



Still within the citadel we stopped in the small mosque of Suleiman Pasha. This was our favorite thus far due to the intricate ceiling mosaics.



Starved and determined to eat a real meal, we searched the streets. Without many options we took our chances on a random empty restaurant and were rewarded. It was a huge meal in which the humus and bbq'd chicken stood out.



Amazingly still not sick of mosques, we headed to the Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan. This was built on a massive scale, as you can see from Lindsey's size in the below picture.



Lastly, we stopped at Ibn Tulun, a mosque large enough to hold every man in that district. The view from the roof and climb up the minaret were great.



It was amazingly empty.



In the evening we headed to see a performance of the whirling dervishes, but for some reason they weren't having one that evening. Nevertheless, we returned to close-by Fishawi's for another tea, and this time had some apple sheesha.



We cabbed it home, excited for our trip to the Pyramids of Giza early the next morning.