A few facets of Cairo

Hooey, on a roll tonight, one last post before I pass out again into my dehydrated, stomach-percolating stupor. Just some pictures of things that say "Cairo" to me at this point in my travels.


A spoon at El Fishawy coffeehouse, possible the most famous ahwa in Islamic Cairo, located in the middle of Khan al-Khalili, a market/souq/bazaar. Note how spoon is actually made from what appears to be tin from a scrapped oven (you can see the word "Oven" on the handle).

Cats. This one looks both silly and regal, which for me is typical of street cats around Cairo. Not too many dogs as I think many of them have been culled and Egyptians tend not to be dog fans.

Coptic priest who I sniped walking by poster of......hisself or a fellow bearded priest? Although a minority in Egypt, Coptic (Egyptian Orthodox) Christians still have a nice community south of downtown a bit.


The Citadel, viewed from Al-Azhar Park. Citadel, awesome learning/ruling center of olden times. Al-Azhar Park, awesome greenery and parky goodness literally built on top of a huge pile of garbage....reminds me of that park in Mumbai that was built to keep vultures from dropping remains of dead Zoroastrians into the water supply as they carried remains away from the Tower of Silence. Read about Zoroastrian last-rites for some pretty cool information.

Angry freakin camels. I'm pretty sure that every monster/alien noise from the original Star Wars trilogy was sourced from angry camel sounds, from Chewbacca's complaining-about-everything noises to all the monsters used as steeds. Camels can be pretty cute when they're just hanging out, but irritated camels are some hideous beasts.

Don making out with the Sphinx, with special thanks to the little kids trying to get tourists to take these horrible, disrespectful photos.

And finally, friendly people confused by my friendship with a neon-green inanimate candy dispenser.