Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Egypt part two

Ciao everyone from Athens, once again. Before I start, today is November 4th, and that's election day, people. I know not all of us are on the same page politically, but I sure hope, regardless of your political affiliation, that you vote. Seriously, the time it takes to read this blog is about how long it takes to vote, so if you must, please, don't read and go vote. It's worth doing. I've been waiting since this day 4 years ago for this day, and for over a year I've been pulling ofr Obama. To be this close to history is amazing, and I can't wait to see the results soon. But seriously! Go vote!

It's a bit weird to be writing about Cairo, in Athens, and I'm going back to Rome tomorrow. Before I came to Rome, I'd only ever been to two countries ever, and now, in less than a week, I'll have been in three. Just weird to think about.

You know what else is really strange? All the languages there are in the world. Holy cow. I mean, I'm just starting to learn Italian, and then you travel for just a few hours on a plane and NO ONE speaks the same language. It's insane. You can do this over and over again, and every language will be different. Just feels weird. It's a small yet diverse world out there, and it's a shame that not everyone can travel and see at least a little something different to learn just how different yet the same we all are.

That's really a theme of today's post: so different, and yet very similar. In fact, today's post is really going to harp on that idea and cross many themes that I talk about, so hopefully you can appreciate them at least a little bit.

I am writing about Saturday today, or my last full day in Cairo. We didn't have to be up quite as early, so we got to sleep in a bit and get some breakfast at our leisure. Kirsten and I met up with Brad and Sue, and Amr and Abby, our tour people, got us together and we went over to visit some Mosques. Now, I know Islam is perceived in a very negative fashion in many places in America, and yes, what some Islamic people have done to our country in the past has been atrocious. But to lump an entire religion into the category of terrorists is simply foolish and uneducated, in my opinion, anyway. Some of the worst atrocities in history were commited by Christians, and Roman history studies of the Crusades, etc, really shows a similar thread: people do terrible things in the name of anything, and religion often gets tied up into it.

The mosques we visited were outstanding. On the way to visit the first two, we passed by the Citadel, where the Tellams visited before I came and I saw on my way there. A really beautiful structure, and several mosques are inside the walled area that overlook Cairo. Also on the way there were the Limestone quarries where all the blocks for the Pyramids came from, really cool to see that as well. It's tough to see in the picture, but that's the Citadel from the car.

Anyway, we went up and visited these two mosques, and I realized upon entering I'd never been in a mosque before. First time for everything! We heard behind us the prayer calls coming through the speakers, a common feature in Muslim life. We took off our shoes (something that you must do in every mosque) and entered to find some amazing geometric works and hanging lanterns that have been there since the creation of the mosque. It felt so weird being inside, as the structure of the mosque and the decorations were incredibly similar, and in some ways contemporary, of the Christian churches of a similar time frame. Islam as a religion wasn't created until the 7th century, but the mosques created around that time had a distinct simliarity to those of the Christians. Really, really cool to see.

One major difference, however: in Islam, they don't depict human forms in their places of worship. None. It's all geometric and plant forms, vegetables, and mathematically brialliant designs. Every step we took deeper into the mosque, I felt more and more intrigued by how similar they seemed to what I'd been studying, but that's not to say they didn't have their own flavor: they certainly, unquestionably, do.

Another interesting note: all mosques have an alter like apse in them that points directly towards Mecca. Christianity, as you may or may not know, used to orient themselves towards their holy land too, Jerusalem. They stopped this later after they didn't control the lands anymore, but still, really, really cool to think about the similarities.

Some of the Mosque we were at first was open-aired, which was really cool, but we went inside the covered area and saw what was designed in there, it was brilliant. So intricate and beautiful, and having studied Christian churches of a similar era, it was so interesting to see the different shapes and designs used in decoration while the structure remained ultimately semi-similar. Really cool stuff.

I'm including a picture of some of the designs in there, just to show it off. I'll Picasa them when I have a chance. Oh, and by the way, all my Egypt part 1 photos are on there, so check it out if you want!

From there, we went into a second mosque, constructed in the 19th century that was so elaborate, but dark, so difficult to photograph. I'll post them later though, don't worry, you can see them all you want there if you'd desire. However, some really interesting things to note in this mosque: King Farouk of Egypt, who died in 1965, and the last Shah of Iran, who the Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew in 1979, leading to all sorts of madness that most of you probably know much much more about than I do in my limited studies. But yes, the Shah died there as he couldn't return to Iran, but his wife still has huge bouquets of flowers delivered there on a weekly basis. King Farouk's story is another one that's much more contemporary, and I won't take too much time on here to say much about it beyond that it was really cool to see both of their graves.

That picture, in Arabic, obviously, is Farouk's grave. Arabic is beautiful to see written, but I feel hopelessly illiterate looking at it.

We then hopped in the van to go to Ibn Tulun, which was my favorite of the places we visited that day. It's surrounded by a huge walled exterior, then a covered area of tons of columns, but the most amazing part is the huge uncovered area in the middle of the compound. When we went in here, we didn't have to take off our shoes, but they did tie these cloth sacks around our feet so we wouldn't mark up the place or defile it somehow.

I liked this place a lot, if I may say.




So much so I took a video and lots of pictures. You can hear our Egyptologist, Abby, in the background, but the interior is really what I wanted to show off anyway. So please, enjoy, and I'll post pictures too just in case you can't enjoy the video.

We spent a little while just walking around the expansive interior, and the little structure in the exact middle had a fountain there used for Islamic purposes at one point but since has been decomissioned. Most of the monuments in Cairo fell into disrepair at one point due to the horrific death numbers around the time of the plague and the general lack of people to take care of things after that point, but the preservation and reconstruction efforts were very well done. You could still see the thousand-year old paint on some things, which was most excellent indeed.

From there, it was time to break out and head to the airport. Trust me, there's so much more I can say, but for brevity and attention span sake I'll save it for later. We got back to Athens all fine, but I'll explain everything else at a later date my friends.

Until next time,

Ciao

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