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My trip to Egypt.

Egypt 2001, part 1

Cubmc4
2004-04-03 17:23:43

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of airports, airplanes, the trip to the hotel, the view from the hotel window, inside the hotel, and the streets of Cairo. As you can see from the pictures, Cairo is not a very pretty place in general. Our hotel, the Conrad Hilton, was a very nice five star, complete with a foot washer in the bathroom for the Muslim guests. The Conrad Hilton was the newest large hotel in the Middle East at the time. There are pictures of the lobby below. The pictures of the city, and a branch of the Nile River taken from up high, were from the balcony in our hotel room. I believe the second from the last picture is the Bazaar in Cairo, but I may be wrong. It is a good representation of how packed Cairo is with people and honking cars.

ALABASTER MOSQUE AND THE CAIRO MUSEUM

After a much needed rest to reduce the effects of jet lag, we were on our way the next day for some sightseeing. That morning we met our guide who was to be with us for the entire trip. His name is Fathy Yehia, pronounced "Fat-Hee Yeh-Ya", an Egyptologist and curator of the Egyptian Museum. The first place Fathy took us was the famous Mohammed Ali Alabaster Mosque. When our group reached the entrance of the Mosque, everyone was asked to take their shoes off in respect of the Islamic religion. Two of the girls in our group were asked to wear some kind of long green covers because too much of their arms or legs were exposed. We all sat in a circle on the beautifully hand made carpet and listened to Fathy explain the main practices of the Islamic religion. He explained the typical daily life of a Muslim and how they prayed five times a day. He told us many very interesting details that I cannot remember about the washing practices, fasting, diet, and separation of men and women in the Islamic religion. At this time I realized that Fathy was extremely knowledgeable and experienced. He seemed to know all the details about the sights we visited and could answer ...