Cairo

The first thing that most people associate with Cairo, Egypt's capital city, is the three Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. We have already seen the Pyramids and the Sphinx in "The Underground Orion Correlation Theory", on this blog. 

These images, from Google Street View, are of the Great Pyramid (also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, whose Greek name was Cheops), the Pyramid of Khafre (Greek name Chephren) and, the Pyramid of Menkaure (Greek name Mycerinus). The three were all pharaohs, grandfather, son and, grandson and lived around 2500 BCE. 

Notice that, on the following Pyramid of Menkaure, some of the blocks in the middle are missing. That's because Moslems of about a thousand years ago started to dismantle the Pyramids. 

There was another visit on this blog, Ramesses I, but this was far to the south, is what used to be known as "Upper Egypt", and is not near Cairo.

Cairo is the natural center of the Arab world. If all Arabs united, as Pan-Arab leaders such as Egypt's Gamal Nasser were seeking, it is difficult to imagine that their capital could be any city other than Cairo. The Fatimid Caliphate had the much-older city of Alexandria, but chose to build a new city, and Cairo was founded in the year 969. When Cairo was founded, the nearby Pyramids of Giza were about 3500 years old. The first capital of the Fatimid Caliphate had been Mahdia, in Tunisia. The original Arab conquest of Egypt had begin in 641.

It was a general who had once been a Christian slave, Jawhar, who founded Cairo and built the Al Azhar Mosque there. The name of Cairo is from a word that means "conqueror" or "victory". The story is that Mars, which represents war, was rising in the sky when Cairo was being founded, and this led to the choice of name.

Cairo started as an Islamic city, and so was not there in ancient times. Cities like London and Paris are actually older than Cairo. But Cairo was built, not only adjacent to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, but also on the sites of much older cities dating back to ancient times. Memphis was a central city of ancient Egypt which is located in the general area, to the south of Cairo, which was eventually superseded by the building of Alexandria and Fustat. The ancient city of Heliopolis, which in Greek means "city of the sun", is today the Cairo suburb of Ayn Shams.

Cairo was originally built to the northeast of Fustat, which was the first Moslem capital of Egypt, but today it's ruins are within Cairo. Fustat is of Umayyad Caliphate origin, while Cairo was founded by the later Fatimid Caliphate. The continuity between the cities of different eras is illustrated by the fact that stones were pillaged from Memphis to build both Fustat and Cairo.

Fustat was the Islamic capital of Egypt for about 500 years, following the Arab Islamic conquest of the country in 641. The first mosque built in Fustat, the Mosque of Amr, was the first mosque on the continent of Africa. Fustat was purposely destroyed during the Crusades, to keep it's wealth out of the hands of the Crusaders. Just as the ruins of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan now lie within Mexico City, what is left of Fustat can be seen within Cairo. The rebuilt Mosque of Amr is in Old Cairo today.

In later history, the Mamluks were an Islamic order of knights whose sultanate ruled Egypt, while based in Cairo, from 1250 until defeat by the Ottomans in 1517. Even after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt, the Mamluks continued as a feudal ruling class.

Napoleon occupied Egypt for three years, beginning in 1798, and it is this occupation which not only did so much to shape the future of Paris, as we saw in the posting on this blog, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", but also brought the fascination with ancient Egypt into the consciousness of the west.

An Albanian Ottoman officer named Muhammad Ali Pasha made Cairo the capital of an independent empire, from 1805-82. His dynasty lasted until the 1952 revolution that overthrew the king. His mosque is the best-known structure in Cairo today, other than the pyramids.

Egypt was Christian before it was Moslem, and up to ten percent of Egyptians today are Coptic Christians. The area known as "Coptic Cairo" is within "Old Cairo", which refers to what was there before the Fatimid Caliphate founded Cairo in 969. The Roman fortress of Babylon is actually the oldest structure in the city, and is located within Old Cairo.

Remember that, as we saw in the posting on this blog "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", Egypt's Coptic Christians are neither Protestants nor Catholics nor Eastern Orthodox. The difference is in what is referred to as "christology", or how Jesus relates to God. More specifically, it refers to how Jesus two natures, the divine and the human, relate to one another.

There actually is an Egyptian (Coptic) Catholic Church, but it is one of the more than twenty "Eastern Catholic Churches", which recognize the authority of the pope but have different liturgy. The vast majority of Catholics belong to what is known as the Latin Church.

We rarely hear the term "christology" today simply because the three main branches of Christianity all agree that Jesus had his two natures in one. This was established at the Council of Chalcedon, so that Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are known as Chalcedonian Christians. But so-called "Eastern Christians", such as the Nestorians, believe that Jesus' two natures remained completely separate, while Egypt's Coptic Christians believe that the human nature is completely subsumed in the divine nature. The Coptic Church is a very early church, the apostle St. Mark is believed to have evangelized there after Jesus' crucifixion. This is the same St. Mark whose bones were later expropriated from Egypt by the Venetians so that he could be made the patron saint of Venice.

The following scenes around Old Cairo and Coptic Cairo begin with the the rebuilt mosque that was the first mosque on the continent of Africa. You can tell if is a building is Christian or Moslem by whether there are crosses or minarets, or by the caption in the upper left of the screen. Remember that the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha is the most prominent scene in Cairo, other than the pyramids, and that you will see that in many of these scenes here, even if it is not immediately nearby. 

The first three images of the mosque are from Google Street View.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0062617,31.2297304,2a,75y,96.59h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s9yZ2hyTrDfL1mcVehFIS1Q!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D9yZ2hyTrDfL1mcVehFIS1Q%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D97.59781%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

There is a vast cemetery known as the "City of the Dead", within which many people live and work, some living there by choice and others forced there by their financial situation. It is not just a cemetery, the City of the Dead has running water, electricity and schools. These two images are from the Wikipedia article "City of the Dead".

 

Next, we come to the area known as Islamic Cairo. This is where we will find what is probably the greatest concentration of historic Islamic architecture anywhere. Cairo is sometimes known as the "City of a Thousand Minarets". The streets of Islamic Cairo are old and narrow. The Al Hakim Mosque is a well-known mosque of Islamic Cairo. 

The Al-Azhar Mosque was the first built when Cairo was founded, and the university of the same name is possibly the oldest university in the world that is still in operation. There are large mosques at both ends of the main street along Islamic Cairo. The Al-Hussein Mosque was later found to have been built over a cemetery of Fatimid Caliphs. 

The first five images of old Cairo are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0498558,31.2611956,3a,75y,134.45h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-kAgQ5Ui7Kro%2FUxC9qRZ2jYI%2FAAAAAAAAVhE%2FHx2ioRztzY8I71fwKGOpnabpaxAzEE7Zw!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-kAgQ5Ui7Kro%2FUxC9qRZ2jYI%2FAAAAAAAAVhE%2FHx2ioRztzY8I71fwKGOpnabpaxAzEE7Zw%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya118.74934-ro0-fo100%2F!7i3840!8i1919

Here are some more scenes around the old area of Islamic Cairo. Some of the Old City walls, as well as a few gates in the walls, are remaining.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0546245,31.263852,3a,75y,272h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-HkbxUmOepX4%2FUwI0uqdzErI%2FAAAAAAAAEg4%2FNu5HJS5j6qog1y4HQrLHP-2R3Ry3bhbeQ!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-HkbxUmOepX4%2FUwI0uqdzErI%2FAAAAAAAAEg4%2FNu5HJS5j6qog1y4HQrLHP-2R3Ry3bhbeQ%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya146.51299-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i3840!8i1919

Moving on to what is known as the Citadel of Cairo, located to the south of Islamic Cairo, we come to the most prominent structure in Cairo, aside from the pyramids, which is the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha.

In 1169, Saladin was appointed as vizier of Egypt by the Fatimid Caliphate. He then seized power from the Fatimids, and constructed the Citadel in Cairo to defend both Cairo and Fustat from Crusaders. The Citadel was begun in 1176. It was the center of administration in Cairo after Saladin's government was overthrown by the Mamluks, in 1250, until the move to Abdeen Palace in 1874. There were great contributions to Cairo architecture during the Mamluk Period, from 1250 to 1517.

The massive Mosque of Sultan Hasan, just outside the Citadel, had the Al-Rifai'i Mosque (The Royal Mosque) constructed as a compliment next to it. The Mosque of Sultan Hasan is from the Fourteenth Century, and the complimentary Al-Rifai'i Mosque from the Nineteenth Century. The Mosque of Sultan Hasan upset many people because of the expense of building it, and it never served as his tomb because he was assassinated but his body was never found.

The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Mosque of Sultan Hasan". The older Mosque of Sultan Hasan is on the left. The newer Al-Rifai'i Mosque is on the right.

This image, from Google Street View, also shows the Mosque of Sultan Hasan, on the left, and the Al-Rifai'i Mosque, on the right.

Inside the Al-Rifai'i Mosque we see a red, white and, green flag. This is the flag of Iran, actually the Imperial Iranian flag with the lion, sun and, sword, and not the present flag of the Islamic Republic. That's because this is the tomb of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. He left Iran in 1979 and, as a friend of Anwar Sadat, was admitted into Egypt. The Shah had cancer and would spend time in Morocco, the Bahamas, Mexico, the U.S. and, Panama, before returning to Egypt where he died in July 1980. His admission to the U.S. is what caused the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, and the ensuing hostage crisis. The following image, from Google Street View, is of the tomb of the final Shah. The royal line was 2500 years old and had once conquered Egypt in ancient times. 

On the summit is the Mosque and Tomb of Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Ottoman officer who took control in 1805, and made Cairo the capital of an independent empire. While seizing power, Muhammad Ali slaughtered about a thousand Mamluks, after inviting them to a meeting. One Mamluk leader is reported to have survived by getting his horse to jump from the Citadel. The mosque is supposedly built on the site of a destroyed Mamluk palace. The Al Nasir Mosque, within the Citadel, is from the Fourteenth Century, but the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha was not built until the Nineteenth Century.

Muhammad Ali Pasha formed modern Egypt, during the first half of the Nineteenth Century. He died in 1848. His grandson, Isma'il Pasha, was inspired by the reconstruction of Paris in the Nineteenth Century and built an opera house in Cairo. The economic center of Cairo moved to the newer areas that were built by Isma'il Pasha, centered around Tahrir Square.

The Citadel was the center of Ottoman power in Egypt. The dynasty established by Muhammad Ali Pasha, originally an Ottoman officer, had Ottoman approval and lasted nearly 150 years, through the overthrow of King Farouk, by the Free Officers' Movement, in 1952. From that point on, Egypt has been led by a president who rose to power in the military, with the brief exception of Mohamed Morsi from 2012-13.

One of the Nineteenth-Century projects in the renovation of Cairo by Isma'il Pasha, the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, was the Abdeen Palace. This is now the office of the President of Egypt, where the center of power moved from the Citadel. The upper floors used to be the residence of the royal family of the Pasha Dynasty. The official title of Isma'il Pasha was khedive, or viceroy. 

The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Abdeen Palace".

The royal families of different nations tend to form connections, and the sister of the last of the Pasha Dynasty, King Farouk, was the first wife of the last Shah of Iran. The relationship continued after the Shah was overthrown. He was welcomed into exile in Egypt by Anwar Sadat, the second of the former military presidents after the overthrow of the Pasha Dynasty, and that was where the Shah would ultimately die.

Here are some scenes around the Citadel, starting in the court of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, which is adjacent to the Citadel. You can see why Cairo is referred to as "The City of a Thousand Minarets". Does the massive form of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, often referred to as simply "The Mosque of Muhammad Ali", look familiar? That is because it was clearly modeled on the Hagia Sophia, in Istanbul, that we saw in the posting on this blog, "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began". 

The first six images, of the Citadel and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0322419,31.25621,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-xzb3oqRDSpA%2FVcnKgO_m7CI%2FAAAAAAAAEno%2FRnUTUlvEWdgfPIfs_BeXUnep5Uomxn3_g!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-xzb3oqRDSpA%2FVcnKgO_m7CI%2FAAAAAAAAEno%2FRnUTUlvEWdgfPIfs_BeXUnep5Uomxn3_g%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya67.847878-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i9728!8i4864

Not far from the Citadel is the Mosque of Ibn Tulun, with the famous spiral staircase minaret. This mosque was actually built before Cairo was founded. Here are some scenes in and around this mosque. The first two images of the Ibn Tulun Mosque are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0288215,31.2497211,3a,75y,247h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-9kDAgaOF2Qg%2FV--7olQ7OUI%2FAAAAAAAAGj0%2FNAkidbTbw6wHwbT3uzy8vd3WqAO_JUP1QCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh4.googleusercontent.com%2F-9kDAgaOF2Qg%2FV--7olQ7OUI%2FAAAAAAAAGj0%2FNAkidbTbw6wHwbT3uzy8vd3WqAO_JUP1QCLIB%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya127.44904-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i8704!8i4352

The green space in the middle of bustling Cairo is Al-Azhar Park. Al-Azhar is a very important name in Cairo because it is the name of the first mosque that was built when the city was founded. It is also the name of the Cairo University that might be the oldest university in the world that is still operating. Here are scenes in Al-Azhar Park, with some of the mosque and the university of the same name. From the park can be seen the dome and minarets of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, in the Citadel. 

These two images of the Al-Azhar Mosque are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0412708,31.2654919,3a,75y,205h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-CkWx8sebmqo%2FUxX4Z9VoKuI%2FAAAAAAAAX4Q%2FFJvGstbCfMIJhkcyy7YccgldX6B15YekA!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-CkWx8sebmqo%2FUxX4Z9VoKuI%2FAAAAAAAAX4Q%2FFJvGstbCfMIJhkcyy7YccgldX6B15YekA%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya94.286613-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i3840!8i1919

I think of Tahrir Square, meaning Liberation Square, as kind of the "New Citadel" of Cairo. It was part of the "new downtown" built to the north of the older city by Isma'il Pasha, grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, who began the dynasty and for whom the prominent mosque on the Citadel is named.

There is a building of government offices adjacent to Tahrir Square, known as the Mogamma, It will remind Buffalo, NY readers of their city hall, because it is built in a similar style. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "The Mogamma".

Tahrir Square is a natural focal point of demonstrations that may take place, it was in the news worldwide during the uprising of 2011. This image, of the Mogamma across Tahrir Square, is from Google Street View.

Cafes are very important in the everyday life of Cairo. Discussions in cafes are often what gets political movements started. Probably no cafe in the world has hosted more world-changing discussions than downtown Cairo's Cafe Riche. This has got to be the single most important cafe in the world. Most of the events that made modern Egypt began with discussions in this cafe.

Not far from Tahrir Square is one of the best-known museums in the world, the Egyptian Museum. It specializes, of course, in the relics of ancient Egypt. Much of Egypt's heritage is now in other countries, but this museum has the greatest collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world. The central museum of Egyptian artifacts moved several times before ending up here. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Egyptian Museum".

Also not far from Tahrir Square is the Cairo Opera House. Khedive Isma'il Pasha, an admirer of Paris who rebuilt Cairo in much the same way as Paris was being rebuilt in the late Nineteenth Century, had an opera house built. But it was not built to resemble the Palais Garnier, in Paris. The original Cairo opera house was destroyed by fire in 1971. President Hosni Mubarak had it rebuilt, opening in 1988.

But look at the design of the new Cairo Opera House. It is immediately reminiscent of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which we saw in the compound posting on this blog, "The House of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began". The opera house was modeled, of course, after the prominent Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, on the Citadel, and, remembering that Pasha was an Ottoman himself, was what was modeled on the Hagia Sophia. The following image is from the Wikipedia article "Cairo Opera House".

Here is what modern Cairo looks like. Tall, modern buildings tend to be along the Nile River. The first five images of modern Cairo, along the Nile River, are from Google Street View.

The following scenes begin in what is known as Garden City. The first four images of Garden City are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0362555,31.22968,3a,75y,256.66h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOdUVjOAHN4CFqzKj60Ix8GMPVQUXPq0o9fo7FS!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOdUVjOAHN4CFqzKj60Ix8GMPVQUXPq0o9fo7FS%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0-ya47.48591-ro-0-fo100!7i6720!8i3360 

What we have seen so far of Cairo has been to the east of the Nile River, which flows through it. Here is a residential area of Giza, to the west of the river, and between the river and where the Pyramids of Giza are located, which can be seen in some of the images. The first five images, of daily life in Giza, are from Google Street View.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.0075257,31.1839836,3a,75y,340h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOMZYhyftV7TsHwEWpzTcPd7oqTtRTl5tUPBUT2!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOMZYhyftV7TsHwEWpzTcPd7oqTtRTl5tUPBUT2%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi0.50294167-ya334.44476-ro0.5594501-fo100!7i6080!8i3040 

Cairo has built a number of new towns outside the city, in an effort to relieve congestion. One of the best known is 6th of October City, which is well to the west, past the Pyramids of Giza. The name commemorates the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Just as Paris likes to link itself to history by it's street names, Cairo names many streets after significant dates.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.9511308,30.9128247,3a,75y,120h,110t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipO82-whLBEP3LErg3yGwY9LwoGzJDg4uuA8zSaw!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipO82-whLBEP3LErg3yGwY9LwoGzJDg4uuA8zSaw%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-20-ya251-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352 

Finally, let's go south of Cairo to the ruins of the ancient Egyptian Step Pyramid of Djoser. We have not yet visited this pyramid, which is even older than the Pyramids of Giza. The Step Pyramid of Djoser is believed to be the oldest complete stone structure in the world, and was the first pyramid built in Egypt. This is near the former city of Memphis. Saqqara, where the pyramid is located, was the funerary complex of Memphis. Remember that we saw the three much-better known Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx in the posting on this blog, "The Underground Orion Correlation Theory". The following scenes include the pyramid and the ruins of the smaller structures around it. The first two images of the Pyramid of Djoser are from Google Street View. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.8737878,31.2185262,3a,75y,119h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4vwtIybVJTWouavzm-tvmA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D4vwtIybVJTWouavzm-tvmA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D119.06666%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656