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First Days In Cairo 

March 24, 2022 /

It’s somehow passed us by that BA are no longer providing meals on short haul flights, and it seems a 5-hour flight is classified as short haul. So there’s nothing, and by the time we make Cairo we are living up to our hungry travellers moniker.

Cairo isn’t a traffic jam, it’s a complete gridlock, a gridlock of drivers who possess neither patience nor any lane sense and it takes well over an hour to inch and nudge our way from airport to downtown apartment. Dusk arrives on the way, and the air fills with the echoing and haunting call to prayer from the multitude of mosques around the city, almost but not quite louder than the constant honking of car horns.

Downtown Cairo

We’ve arrived in Cairo in an unseasonable chilly spell with daytime temperatures only peaking at around 17, at a time of year when it’s not uncommon to top 30. It’s cold at night too, temperatures dropping quickly after sundown, but we know all that will change very soon.

Gridlock

Food is high on the agenda after the BA non-experience and the menu at our first eatery has some English translations which are both mystifying and hilarious, with all of the following available: “feathers of lamb or veal”, “music kebab”, “banana with a gesture” and, best of all, “your chick’s breast”. Spoilt for choice with that lot!

Immersing ourselves in Cairo isn’t really a matter of choice, this is a city which imposes itself on you from the moment you step on to its broken pavements and run the gauntlet of crossing its chaotic streets. Cairo is a giant assault on the senses, our ears battered by the cacophonous chorus of blaring car horns and revving engines, shopkeepers shouting to be heard above the noise, even the call to prayer booming from loudspeakers on minarets and in trees. In no time at all our throats and noses sting from breathing in a punishing mix of exhaust fumes and dust.

Crazy streets

But not one bit of this feels bad: the excitement, energy and life of this city is as exciting and exhilarating as it is exhausting. There can’t be many cities, even in North Africa, where going into the madness of the bazaar feels like peaceful respite from the craziness of the streets, yet that’s exactly how it feels here.

Time for mint tea

A first expedition around Khan El Khalily, one of the oldest bazaars in the world, reminds us of Marrakech or Izmir, tiny alleyways packed with activity and rammed with goods of all kinds for sale, although we by no means cover the whole bazaar on our first wander. We can’t help but notice one thing though: the female mannequins here are definitely of….errr…shall we say, Dolly Parton proportions.

In truth we are already a little weary by the time we make the bazaar, having headed first today to Cairo Tower and then on to the Egyptian Museum, home of course to Tutankhamun’s mask and a huge collection of relics and artefacts from various tombs and pyramids, all charting Egypt’s ancient history. Photographs taken at the time of Howard Carter’s discovery add awe and context to many of the exhibits.

From King Tut’s tomb
Tutankhamun’s Throne

Sections on mummification processes and on the “unwrapping” of mummies are fascinating in the extreme; the gold of the famous mask glints under the lights (no photos allowed) as King Tut’s brief story – king at 9 years old and dead at 19 – is described in detail along the way. Of course, Tutankhamun is just one of many kings represented in this extensive museum as we pass through the various ages and  dynasties.

Mask of Thuya
Mask of Yuya
One of many

Across the bridge from the museum, the lofty, narrow structure which is Cairo Tower sits on the large island of Gazira in the middle of the Nile and affords views which lay out the full extent of this giant sprawling city, way across to the desert beyond, the pyramids of Giza clearly visible just beyond the city limits. On the open air viewing platform 61 floors up, the howling wind is both strong and chilly as we take in the stupendous views.

Cairo with Pyramids in the distance

Here in Cairo the Nile has all the hallmarks of a mighty river as it cuts a vastly wide swathe through the city, the skyscrapers which dot its banks a modern day foil for Egypt’s ancient history.

Cairo and the River Nile

The vegetarian meal known as koshary is the national dish of Egypt, immensely popular with all age groups. Two sources have recommended we try it at Abu Tarek, a multi level restaurant where they serve pretty much nothing else. With a little bit of at-table theatre in the preparation – the quantities of chilli sauce and garlic vinegar (!) should be exact – the experience turns out to be great fun. The koshary, predominantly pulses, tomatoes and pasta, is delicious, filling and ridiculously cheap at just over £2 each including bottled water!

Abou Tarek restaurant
Serving koshary

As night draws on, car horns continue to sound late into the night, the incessant soundtrack of Cairo drifting into our apartment and still filling the air as we drift off to sleep. Exhausted by the city’s boundless battering of the senses, even that won’t keep us awake tonight.

And then suddenly it’s 5am and just getting light as the muezzins’ call to prayer starts to echo around the city, waking the city and its people in time honoured fashion. As the haunting call finally ends, dogs are barking and from somewhere a car horn sounds. We smile. Another day in the life of Cairo is dawning.

View from our apartment

The new day brings a cloudy sky and a further drop in temperature, though research tells us that this will be the coolest day of the whole trip and the mercury should start to rise rapidly from here. Battling through Cairo’s chaos is one thing, fending off vendors and would-be city guides is another; though if we had one pound for every smile and friendly “welcome to Cairo” then we’d have a lot of pounds! 

Cairo, with its 21.3 million inhabitants, is the largest city in Africa, the largest in the Arab world, and the sixth largest city in the world, measured by population. As we battle our way through gridlocked traffic, handcarts, mopeds, swamped walkways and crowded alleys, we sometimes feel as if we’ve seen most of those 21 million. 

Delving deeper into the bazaar of Khan El Khalily is another intense experience. Follow the city maps into these souks and you dive into a network of tight alleys, here a clothing section, next jewellery, of course rug and carpet shops, now trinkets and souvenirs. Rather like the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, it’s thriving and filled with local shoppers but with a definite nod to foreign visitors.

Cross the main road and enter the other half though, the half of the bazaar not on your map, through the lofty archway and into the ancient streets, and you are in a different world. There is no nod to tourism here, this is the earthy, downtrodden world of the real Cairo, litter strewn underfoot, ferrel cats and dogs scavenging for scraps amongst the rubbish, raw meat hanging where the flies can feast long before any punters do. This is not for the faint hearted.

Now and again the tight alley way opens up to reveal another ancient mosque with towering minarets, then we stumble upon one of the ancient city gates, topped with two more towering minarets. Climbing to the top of the archway, we look out across this part of the city: beneath us the buildings around the bazaar look part derelict, like images of a bombed out city.

View from the city gate

This is the heart of the district known as Islamic Cairo, no more devout than the rest of the city but characterised by hundreds of mosques, tombs and fortifications dating back centuries to the Islamic era. The whole area oozes history, as of course does all of Egypt.

So with ancient kings and dynasties, Tutankhamun, Cleopatra, King Farouk, Mohamed Ali Pasha the founder of latter day Cairo, and any number of Gods and figures of historical significance, whose image features most commonly throughout this heaving city? Well of course it’s Liverpool footballer Mo Salah, whose smiling face will greet you at virtually every turn. Never mind history, there’s a very contemporary hero here.

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