The Citadel - mid 1100, the year of our Lord

Saturday, the four of us took in a tour of the Citadel. It is situated on what is known as Mokattam. This was the center of power until the mid 1700's. The reason this location was chosen, is that the original developer chopped up pieces of lamb and sent them to different locations around the area.....and sent people to inspect the meat. The meat placed on Mokattam's Hill by far out lasted the others.
There is always a wind there (typically fresh even on the days us low-landers get it stale and hot) as well as it is consistently 5-8 degrees (celcius) cooler than anywhere lower.

The Citadel is known by the Egyptians as el-kh-Allah.

You will see from photos that this tour of recent history(for the US it'd be pretty old, but not for Egypt) has been altered due to fire damage, an earthquake in 1992 (I heard they get earthquakes from ranging from 6-8 in intensity every 20-40 yrs??)

Amazing clear, breezey cool day (90 F) up there Saturday. We saw all the way to Giza - the 3 largest pyramids lined up so delicately as if beckoning us to forget the modern day noise and bustle and simple reflect....

anyway, this first photo is from the hill, beside the police museum which we did not technically enter - it has photos displayed of large crime sprees, etc, the guide doesn't think anyone needs to view this as a group - WHEW! You can see 2 large mosques centered together there.

The one on the left is of Mamluke construction - mamluke means slave. When there was a slave class, they eventually became powerful...and that's the story of Mohammad Ali's Feast - where he fed all the most powerful, had them exit through one of the narrow corridors then his men with their red top hats (Turkish history of that red hat we see Egyptians wear in movies, not worn currently), and all but one man was assasinated. The other lived 2 weeks before being found and assassinated.

This specific mosque I'm speaking about was visted recently by US President Obama. I'm sure you heard it on the news, now you can sorta view the area, uniqueness of the mosque he chose, etc.



According to our guide, Hala, Mohammed Ali is given credit for current Egyptian history, etc, for beginning the set up of individual country, reign by its own people, etc, EVEN THO he himself was Albanian (via Turkey). The interesting thing is how caucasion his features were, very French if you ask me...and most of the women he had as wives looked very French to me. Large skinny nose, fair features (hair, blue eyes, skin). I heard tell that his favorite wives, however, were more Middle Eastern looking. Mohammed Ali - the dead prophet of the Islamic religion - is said to be the ONLY prophet sent by Allah, he is also buried - with body still there and still dead, underneath the Mohammed Ali mosque.

Some Islamic people pilgimage to this mosque to pray at the gravesites seen here and at Mohammed's tomb. While the quran apparently does not support this belief, Hala says it does not keep people from praying for Mohammed and other leaders to interceed for them. According to Hala, the quran is the direct line to Allah, the only God. But of course, we all know within Christianity there are those who believe they need other people besides the Holy God to intercede for them. I'm just giving a little historical information here ;) Some of you enjoy it as much as I do!



the family in front of the Mohammad Ali mosque

jasmine had just...well...burped in my face and it made me laugh

below is Joshua next to grave stones for some marmaluke men

M.A. mosque is just one of the interesting historical places visited with the city to itself...The Citadel. You will see a green-dome mosque which is called just that. M.A. mosque is made of ALABASTER! INSIDE...AND OUT! so is his tomb which you'll see in here with a red book centered in front of it.













a ceiling below