Cairo!

So last weekend we all went to Cairo, and it was definitely a whirlwind trip! We were there for three days and two nights, which is of course not enough time to explore even a tenth of what the city has to offer.

We of course saw the pyramids, which were nice. I have to admit that I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. My favorite part was seeing Saqqara, which is filled with ancient royal tombs. We got to go inside one of these tombs and I almost died for being too excited! Djoser's step pyramid is also at Saqqara. The pyramid itself wasn't too interesting to me, but the area surrounding it was fabulous, because it included several complexes including the ruins of a heb-sed court and a palace.

We also saw a citadel-turned-mosque, which was beautiful, and an area of Cairo called Khan al-Khalili, which is famous for it's souks, or markets.

On Saturday we went to the Coptic area to see a church and a synagogue. Of course the synagogue was closed because it was shabbat, but the Egyptian coordinators of our tour could not understand why in the world something would be closed on a Saturday, and yelled at the guard there for about 15 minutes! The church, which apparently dates back to the third century CE, was gorgeous. I just really wish I could have seen the synagogue.