islamic cairo walking tours

We went on two walking tours of Islamic Cairo organized by the American Research Center in Egypt. Islamic Cairo is the portion of Cairo that was developed between roughly 800 and 1800. Islamic Cairo is full of narrow winding streets, most too narrow for a car to comfortably use, which makes it quiet and peaceful and full of human-scale life.

This round hall with red floor and balconies was designed for sufi whirling dervish dancing.

Lamps hanging into the courtyard of the Sultan Hassan mosque:
Each of us at the top of Bab Zweila, one of the entrances to Islamic Cairo.


A typical late-20th century apartment building faces across the street from an ornate medieval mosque.
The calm quiet inside of a mosque.
A sweet potato seller and his roastery. I've heard these were very common on the streets of New York City a couple of generations ago. They are very cheap and very delicious. The word for sweet potato in Egyptian Arabic is batata, whereas the standard white potato is batatas. You want to think that the s has something to do with plural, but it doesn't.


A woman cutting vegetables to be sold with fuul to passersby. Fuul is the most typical breakfast and lunch dish in Egypt, though it can be hard to find it, or its fried cousin taamiyya, in the afternoon or evening.

A renovated courtyard in a large home owned by someone wealthy and powerful, it feels oceans away from the loud street just in front of the home.


Historical and architectural beauty, and in front of it a multitude of different kinds of chips, soda, and candy.

Rachel at Talaat Harb square, in some senses the essence of downtown Cairo. This part of town is a good contrast to Islamic Cairo with its late-nineteenth century appearance.

Zach shopping in the used book dealer's market in Azbakiyya.