A Tale of Two Cities, Part 2

I thought I would be able to detail my first trip to Cairo in "Part 1" but, in fact, I only succeeded in narrating the first day.  I promise not to spend so much time droning on about the rest of my trip.  It should be fairly easy to abridge the remainder of my wanderings there.


My second day in Cairo was a day of meetings with AUC officials.  I will skip that part, mostly because it would be incredibly boring to anyone not in my line of work, but also because I have learned that it is unwise to discuss one's work in a public forum.  It can often be the quickest route to the unemployment line.  

During the seemingly interminable drive to AUC (it's only 25 kilometers, but it is impossible to detail the traffic patterns--see part 1), I noted that we drove past the City of the Dead.  I had read a bit about this before arriving in Cairo and it's a very fascinating sociological phenomenon in Cairo.  The City of the Dead is a cemetery, but, in fact, it is where the dead meet the living.  Because of Cairo's poverty and their housing shortage, families actually live in these cemeteries.  The tombs are actually built like small houses.  The inhabitants have strung electrical wires into the cemetery.  It is difficult for us to imagine living in a cemetery but, in fact, thousands of Cairenes have taken over these sites.  Living in a cemetery isn't legal at all, but it's tolerated; most probably because officials wouldn't know what to do with the people living there, should they choose to evict them.


One other very fascinating aspect to Cairo is Medina Zabaleen or "Trash City".  Again, I only drove by Trash City, but it is very difficult to describe.  The Zabaleen people are mostly Coptic Christians and they live in this huge expanse of trash.  The Zabaleen are the garbage collectors in Cairo--they go door to door, collecting the trash, bringing it back to Trash City and then they sort it.  The plastics they recycle for money and the organic material was fed to their pigs.  Unfortunately, they were dealt a huge blow by the government last year when Egypt opted to cull all pigs during the outbreak of the H1N1 virus.  There was never any connection between this virus and swine, and so this move was seen, by some, as a direct attack on the minority Coptic Christians by the Islamic government.  This action hurt the Copts greatly, but it also hurt the community.  Since there were no longer any pigs to eat the garbage, the garbage is now piling up on the streets of Cairo.  For a very interesting video on this, check out this Youtube link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l0r7gKrZkw.


Speaking of Copts, I was very interested to visit Coptic Cairo, or, as it's sometimes called, Old Cairo.  And so, one day, I braved it all on my own, and decided to take the Metro and spend a day visiting the Coptic Museum as well as some very, very old churches in that section of Cairo.


The Metro works surprisingly well and is a very clean and efficient system.  Unfortunately, it's routes are not yet elaborate enough to get you to many places in Cairo that one would like to visit; however, there was a stop right by my hotel and it was a direct route to Old Cairo.  Plus the Metro costs 1 Egyptian pound (maybe .20 American?)  Hard to beat.


I was told that there is a woman's only car in the front.  And so, I hopped on the first car when the train stopped.  It was packed solid--and clearly it was not the women's only car.  It may have very well been the men's only car, although I did spy one woman with a baby on the far end of the car.  I was the tallest, fattest, fairest person on the car and now I know what it feels like when the whole world is staring at you.  (I later learned that women's only car is now somewhere in the center--thanks for telling me).  Nobody spoke to me on the ride down, but everyone got a really good look.  I was relieved to exit!

What I can say about Coptic Cairo is that I loved it.  The Coptic Museum is, in my opinion, first rate, especially if you are interested in artifacts (many of which are religious) dating back to the origination of Christianity.  It is a fabulous building, dimly lit, but not so dark that you couldn't view items.  It was cool and mercifully quiet--an oasis of tranquility in the midst of perhaps the noisiest and most chaotic city in the world.  The Coptic Museum claims, probably correctly, to house the largest collection of Christian artifacts anywhere.  I spent a good long time going through it, looking at fabulous Byzantine art and other artifacts that date back to just past the time of Christ.


The other reason you travel to Coptic Cairo is to see the ancient churches.  The most famous is referred to as The Hanging Church, although it's real name is St. Virgin Mary's Church.  It was probably erected around the 7th century, although a church had been on that site much earlier, probably dating back to the 3rd century.  It is called the Hanging Church because the church and the upper nave are suspended over the Babylon fortress gatehouse, so you walk up quite a few stairs to get into the actual church.  The artwork inside is very impressive--from the marble pulpit to the iconography to the wooden barrel vaulted ceiling.  I'll post some photos below:

The oldest church in Coptic Cairo, and one that draws all Christians is St. Sergius and Bacchus Church.  It is built on the site that, legend has it, the Holy Family stayed when they fled from the Holy Land.  In fact, there are stairs leading down to a sort of crypt, and this is where Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus supposedly lived during their time there.  You can actually transcend into the small crypt, on MOST days.  Alas, it was roped off the day I was there.  When the Nile is high, the crypt is often flooded.  So I was left to stare longingly down the dark stairs, wondering what it was like for them to live there, in hiding.  The photo below is either St. Sergius or St. Barbara's--another old and fascinating church in the walls of Old Cairo.  I wish I had labeled all of my photos!

There is also a very old synagogue in Coptic Cairo.  Unfortunately, there are, literally, less than 100 Jews in Cairo anymore.  And so, regular services are probably not even held.  I was unable to enter into the synagogue that day.  The photo above shows the narrow, walled streets of Old Cairo.

Well, I thought I could abridge the details of my week in Cairo, but apparently I am a liar.  However I enjoyed reflecting on the day I spent in Coptic Cairo.  One of the joys of travel, in my opinion, is to visit places that are so much older than our own country.  It is impossible not to marvel over and be impressed by buildings that date from 400 AD and to look at artwork that details the faith of Christians in those early days. So, in the end, I'm afraid I can't predict how long this travelogue will continue.