Day One In Cairo

January 5 (Monday)
Off the airplane in Cairo, we were met by an EO representative who walked us through getting our luggage and getting through customs. Finally a stamp in the passport! Then it was out to the bus where we met our driver and our tour guide for the week, Yassir. Egypt's tourism rules mandated that we also have an armed security guard on our bus and we were followed by a policecar at all times on the road; but we never experienced any hints of problems or felt unsafe.

We hit the ground running for a full day of touring. Our first stop was to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is also where former Egyptian president Anwar El Sedat is buried.

Sedat was killed just across the street at these parade grounds during a celebration back in 1981.

Next we went to lunch at a buffet restaurant out on the edge of the Nile River called the Sea Horse. Outside was a woman using a mud/brick oven to make the most wonderful pita bread!

After that we took off for the a spot called the Church District which had three beautiful Coptic Christian churches (Egyptian Orthodox). Their Christmas was coming up in a couple of days so several were decorated with streamers and even the occasional Santa picture.

The church in the photograph above is called the Hanging Church or the Suspended Church because it's built balanced upon two pillars leftover from an old Roman fortress. Some of the fortress remains are in the picture below.



The woodworking in the church was several centuries old and simply amazing.







Below is a mosaic depicting the Holy Family traveling throughout Egypt while in exile. Note the pyramids in the upper left hand corner.

Christians here are very proud of Egypt's status as a place of refuge for the Holy Family. One of the churches we visited supposedly had been built over the site of a place that housed the Holy Family for two months. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but here's the signs from outside.

Our next stop was the garbage dump. Technically the Manshiyat Nasir district, the government relocated a group of Christian rubbish collectors to the Muqattam Mountain in the late 60's. These people make their home in the actual garbage dump where they work and recycle trash, creating living spaces and shops among the piles of rubbish. Driving through the district was an eye-opening experience. But we did it to reach an amazing church, the Cave Church. Hewn out of the mountain itself, this church was started in 1974 to help reach out to the people of the garbage dump. We had a chance to sit down and have a conversation with one of the priests (with our guide to translate) and hear the story of the church firsthand. Carved out of the mountain, the church walls feature huge scenes of Jesus' life.

Then it was time to head to our hotel. But driving anywhere in Cairo is a challenge and takes a while. Out of the 80 million people living in Egypt, 18 million live in Cairo and its suburbs. There are very few traffic signs and only a handful of stoplights. Mostly they just honk and keep on driving. Plus you are sharing the roads with camels and donkeys pulling carts.

At one point we reached gridlock in a roundabout and no one was moving anywhere. Our driver, security guard and tour guide got out and started picking up little cars (think tiny Renaults) with the people still inside and putting them on the sidewalk to clear some space. Then two of them directed traffic until the driver we could get us clear.

Finally we unloaded at our hotel, the InterContinental Pyramids Park Resort Cairo, and went in for a wonderful buffet dinner before our evening meeting and a chance to crash!