Ahmad Ibn Tulun Mosque

A couple years ago I met a belly dancer from Cairo who now lives in Berea. Her name is Nashua and she's a delightful person and an excellent dancer. This Spring I did a gig in Berea that was organized, in part, by her husband, a very nice man. A month or so ago, I asked them for ideas of places off-the-beaten path to visit in Cairo. We're are doing this trip, or I have already done on previous trips, most of the typical tourist sites in the city. So, yesterday's excursion and today's are based on the suggestions I received from Nashua's husband.

I mentioned in an earlier post that when we flew into Cairo on Sunday, I saw more of the city from the sky than ever before, and one place I had never visited before really stood out to me. It was a large courtyard with a dome in the center. Surrounding the courtyard was a wall with "niches" in it. That's about all I could distinguish from the air. The incredible thing is that today, based on Nashua's husband's suggestion, we visited that very site! How cool is that!

It's the Ahmad Ibn Tulun Mosque and it's a most unlike any I've ever visited. It's based on the Saudi style architecture with no roof and an open courtyard. There are parts of the mosque that are Iraqi and some that are Persian. It's a real fusion of architectural styles. It was a real treat to get to see this mosque. Another new experience was that instead of taking our shoes off, they laced some cotton or linen shoe covers overtop of our footwear. It was a lot better than taking off and carrying around our shoes, like we've done in other mosques--but it did make me and my feet hotter.

I climbed the minaret and took this photo of the open courtyard. The dome in the center is where the men wash themselves before praying. They actually pray underneath the portico facing Mecca. The amazing thing is that there was a very cooling breeze both underneath the portico and up in the minaret tower.

Attached to the mosque is two houses that were combined into one by British soldier, Gayer Anderson. Anderson traveled all over the world and collected many objects from his travels. His house became his own private museum. He made an agreement with the Egyptian government that if they allowed him to remain there he would donate the house and his entire collection to the Egyptian antiquities. So, today it is a museum. It was a very interesting house to visit with many objects from Egypt, India and China. There were a lot of steps and it wore Lea out to do it. I hope she's able to relax the rest of the day and feel better soon.

Karen and Rich Foltz arrived here yesterday afternoon and they joined us for today's excursion! It was a lot of fun to share it with them. :-)

Tomorrow, the rest of the Cairo travelers arrive! Yay! It will be great to visit the main sites with them!

Thanks for reading and visiting my blog!

Tonight I'm going to a traditional music performance. No one else is going with me. :-( But, I'm still going. It's my only guaranteed chance to hear traditional Egyptian Oud on this trip! I'm really looking forward to it! I'll give a report later.

Thanks and Love,
Stuart