Blogging the Nile | Coptic Cairo, Walking, and Luxor

CAIRO, EGYPT – Relatively “weak” day…

Three Observations:

1. Coptic Cairo. So today I headed down to the Coptic area of the city. Coptic Christianity is the oldest “branch” or “sect” of the Christian church, and much of it developed right here in Egypt. The Old Cairo area is just to the south of Heliopolis, where I’m staying right now, so I had to take the subway (like always) from Saray el Kobba to Mar Girgis so I could explore this interesting little area of town.

As soon as I stepped into the area that has more than 20 churches in less than a square kilometer, I noticed how white the area looked – like, its tourists. Since August, I’ve been surrounded by every race except Caucasians, and now, seeing this area (so reminiscent of home) was almost embarrassing. Do I look like that? No way…

Otherwise, the area was beautiful. Narrow cobblestone alley-like streets, bunches of cute little churches, mosques, convents, monasteries, and synagogues, friendly and simpler Egyptians: this was a beautiful area. There’s lots of history, too, including the oldest synagogue in Egypt, a Greek Orthodox church where visitors wrap themselves in a chain for good luck, and even the Church of St. Sergius, where Jesus’s family apparently stayed when fleeing from King Herod in Judah. All in all, it was a cute little place to visit.

2. Exploring by foot. After inhaling a quick lunch of koshari in a neighborhood restaurant and taking the metro back up to Midian Tahrir (metro stop for the Egyptian museum and, in all honesty, the center of Cairo), I walked about a mile down to the area that Midian Ataba was before deciding that I wanted to try walking down to the Citadel, the famous old fort of Cairo. I had good shoes on, and nothing else to do, so why not give it a shot?

After walking another mile and a half down awkward little streets, I’d changed my mind. Walking that far wasn’t a problem, but right when I was starting to feel like I should be at the Citadel, I noticed that I was approaching the back end of it. I wasn’t going to be getting there anytime soon, and apparently, the building was to close early for the day anyways, so I grabbed some orange juice from a nearby juice stand and hailed a taxi (for very cheap) back up to Heliopolis, where I could relax and get some rest. Like I said, it wasn’t a super-interesting day, but I wanted to get some rest before leaving to Luxor tonight… oh, I didn’t tell you?

3. I’m going to Luxor tonight! Here in a little while, I’m taking a 10pm bus down to the Nile-side city of Luxor, where I plan on seeing some temples, some museums, and hopefully, some Valley of the Kings tombs!

When I get down there, I’ll have a hostel to leave my stuff in, but since it’ll be 8am, it’ll be high-time to do some touring. Wish me luck!

-cw, (or in Arabic, )