Alive and well in the City of the Dead...

My weekend didn't start out as planned. I had originally intended to return to the Friday Market to redeem myself after my last episode there, which saw me lose my bag and the Club Zamalek soccer jersey I had just purchased. But after a late Thursday night, spent primarily on a felucca in the middle of the Nile, I was unable to wake up early enough to make a go of it and instead spent Friday vegging out in my room. With most of my friends in Alexandria for the weekend, it looked like I was in for an equally dull Saturday.

Fortunately another ND ex-pat, Josh, was around for the weekend, and he suggested visiting Qaitbay Mosque, a  worthwhile destination located in Cairo's legendary City of the Dead. So along with Brandi, a friend from Georgetown, we hailed a cab at 10 am and set off.

Apparently, this mosque isn't as popular as we (or the guidebook) seemed to think. The taxi driver (after pointlessly meandering around Zamalek for 10 minutes to jack up our fare) took us to the general area, but it was evident after a while that he had no idea where to take us. We picked up on this and asked him to stop, salvaging what had already been an expensive taxi ride (30 pounds!). We consulted the guidebook and realized we weren't too far off, maybe a mile or so. After crossing a busy highway by way of a foot bridge, we were in the City of the Dead and that much closer to Qaitbay.

Despite some of haunting images and ideas its name can conjure up, the City of the Dead is not a community that's home to zombies, banshees, and other assorted ghouls. What it is, however, is a neighborhood that has developed amidst a wide expanse of mausoleums and burial grounds. Known simply as al-qarafa ("the cemetery") by Carineans, the area has been home to both the living and the dead since the 7th century. Although economic advancements in the 16th century saw its use as a residential area decline, Cairo's subsequent influx in population and poverty has made it a popular option for members of the lower class. Follow this link for an informative, yet very difficult to understand, wiki article.

Despite the fact that it was broad daylight, the area did give off a bit of a creepy vibe. I attribute this to the sheer emptiness of it. Even though we were in the midst of an expansive sprawl of structures, the streets were quiet and people were scarce, at least by Cairo's standards.

Also unnerving was the sheer amount of feral dogs roaming around. As one of my companion's aptly noted, it was the first time we'd been somewhere where the dogs outnumbered the cats (although there were plenty of them as well, and they can be seen in the Stray Cats of Cairo album).

After walking for a few minutes, and finally getting directions from someone who knew what they were talking about, we located Qaitbay Mosque. At first, I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about. It seemed fairly nondescript. Yes it was pretty and ornate, but I didn't see how it compared to the sheer magnitude of the Muhammad Ali Pasha Mosque I'd seen the weekend before. However, a fairly helpful tourist policeman, who was honestly the only indication that this was a somewhat notable site, shared with us a bit of the mosque's significance (and then of course wanted a tip). It dated back to 1314, and is also depicted on Egypt's one pound note, as shown to the left.

After checking out the mosque for a bit, we moved on to see what else the City of the Dead had to offer. For the most part, it was more of the same: an endless of expanse of mausoleums and burial sites, repetitive, but interesting nonetheless. Eventually, we came to what looked like a decrepit, abandoned mosque. We scaled the wall and began exploring. From what we could make of it, it appeared that half of the mosque had collapsed years ago. Clearly, it hadn't been in use for a while (expect, perhaps, by the rebellious youth of the area, as we found vodka and playing cards amongst the debris). After nosing around for a bit more, we discovered a peculiar hole in the floor of the mosque that led straight down. We debated seeing what lay below, but after realize we hadn't come prepared with ropes and climbing gear to make the 10 foot decent, we gave it up (forgive me, Nathan Drake). Maybe next time.

After wandering around a bit more, the noonday sun and the heat were getting to us, and we decided to grab some lunch and then take a cab back to Zamalek. Feel free to head to Picasa to check out the rest of the pictures from the excursion.

Tomorrow, it's back to AUC for classes, including my first test of the semester in Arabic. Also of note, I'm in the midst of an application to get funding from Notre Dame to stay out here and take language courses until the end of July. The deadline is March 1, but it's a bit of a hassle, because I'll have to fax hard copies of documents back to ND. Hope to take of all of that within the next few days.