Fatimid Walk

It was such a pleasure to be able to attend a PTP walk again (Its been over a year since I could last attend a walk) yesterday.

As added bonus, my husband was able to come along too and he too got to see the beauty and history of Islamic Cairo through Camel's eyes.

We started at Bab Zuwayla (entry 15LE for foreigners, 1LE for Egyptians) where the gate itself was built by the Fatimids, but the minarets were added about 300 years later. We climbed up the gate and some PTPians even climbed up the minarets. The view from here is lovely. Unfortunately today was not a very clear day, so it was hard to take long range pictures of the skyline.

Our next stop was at the Fakhahini mosque where we heard the stories behind Al Hakim the "eccentric" 3rd Caliph in Egypt.

We then crossed the road to reach the Mausoleum of Al Saleh Nagm ad Din Ayyub which is built on the site of a Fatimid palace - Beit Al Qasreen (which lent its name to one of the books from the Naguib Mahfouz trilogy).

Most PTPians then headed back for some refreshments, but since my husband had come to the area after so long, the 2 of us decided to carry on walking down Sharia al Muizz ud Din towards the Northern Gates.

We looked for some of the other Fatimid monuments that were mentioned during the presentation. We identified the Al Aqmar mosque and Al Hakim mosque before arriving at the Northern wall.


We also wandered into the Beit al Sihaymi which is a beautiful Ottoman house (actually 2 houses), not as well furnished as the Gayer Anderson museum, but some rooms are semi furnished.
We had a wonderful time. The weather was comfortable for walking, the pace relaxed, we met old friends, made new ones, learned a lot, ate roasted batatas, some wonderful local bread stuffed with dates(boreik - sometimes also stuffed with cheese) and some interesting pink and white sweets (moz halawa) and fell in love all over again with Islamic Cairo.

On another note, I would also recommend that you visit the Bein Al Qasreen area in the evening when it is all lit up. It transforms into something mystical in its beauty.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo

The The Egyptian Museum, Cairo was established by the Egyptian Government in 1835.



The present museum building at Tahrir Square near Downtown Cairo, was built in 1900 in the neo-classical style by the French Architect Marcel Dourgnon.

The museum pieces are scheduled to be shifted to a new venue closer to the Giza Pyramids as soon as the building is complete.

The current museum exhibits over 1,20,000 objects, some of the important groups of these objects are : Artifacts from the tombs of kings and members of the royal families of the Middle Kingdom found at Dahshur in 1894. The contents of the royal tombs of Tuthmosis III, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III and Horemheb and the tomb of Yuya and Thuya. Artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun, consisting of more than 3,500 Pieces, of which 1,700 objects are displayed in the museum (the rest are in storerooms)

Some of these objects can be viewed online on the museum website.

Entry to the museum is 50LE for tourists.
Students with ISIC cards can avail a 50% discount.
Entry for locals is 1/2 LE.

Entry to the mummy rooms (1st Floor) is an additional 100LE.
You get to see about 30 mummies of Pharaonic Royalty. These are split across 2 rooms at opposite wings. So do remember to visit the mummies in the opposite wing too. There is no prominent marking about the second room.

(If you aren't that serious about mummies but want to see at least one Egyptian mummy on your trip to Egypt, then the museum at Sakkara has one on display & entry to the museum is included in your entry ticket at Sakkara)

The museum is open from 9am to 5:45pm everyday.
Washrooms are reasonably clean, but better to carry your own kleenex.

Cameras aren't supposed to be used inside.
Food can't be consumed inside.
You can carry in water and small chocolates/nutrition bars.
There is a left luggage counter outside the museum where you can leave your cameras
and food stuff. This service is complementary.

There is a Cafeteria on the museum premises which is overpriced.
The ticket that you buy for the day, allows you to go out on a break to eat lunch and return back on the same day.
A better option for food is one of the many Koshary joints downtown, which are just across the road.

Avoid the tourist trap souvenir & book shops in and around the museum. Most of the books they sell are from the AUC Press which you can buy at source across the circle for less than 1/3rd the price.

Souvenirs you can get dirt cheap at the Khan el Khalili depending on your bargaining skills.

There are plenty of licensed guides available inside the museum in case you do not want to carry a guide book along with you. My personal favorite guide to navigate the museum is the Lonely Planet, Egypt. (Please note : Not Lonely Planet, Cairo) The Lonely Planet, Egypt succinctly and quickly captures the highlights of the museum in an orderly manner.

The exhibits are grouped in historical sequence. But to avoid museum fatigue, I would recommend visiting the Tutankhamun galleries on the first floor right in the beginning. The BBC Galleries have a lovely photo collection as a trailer of what to expect.

Then you can go back to the start of the First Floor or to the ground floor to finish up the rest of the museum.

If you are following a book guide, don't be worried if you can't find things exactly in the rooms were they are mentioned to be. Articles are often temporarily loaned out to other museums.



Browsing the museum could take anywhere between 1 hour to several weeks depending on interest levels. Hitting the highlights would take about 2 hours.

After the Pyramids of Giza, this is the second most visited site in Cairo and is definitely worth a visit.

Note : Summers can get very hot within the museum as only some rooms like the Tutankhamun galleries & the mummy rooms are airconditioned.

This article was originally published at Desicritics.org