We visit the Hanging Church, built by Christians on the walls of a fortress abandoned by the Romans, and one of the oldest churches in Egypt. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an earthquake and so much of it is rebuilt. Also visit the 10th century Abu Serge Church, reputedly above the spot where the Holy Family rested when fleeing King Herod. We stop at the Ben Ezra Synagogue, built on the site of a 4th century. Severely damaged by theArabs after the 1967 war with Israel, it has been renovated, but is no longer used as a synagogue.
We see the Coptic Museum, which is full of all kinds of religious and secular artifacts from the 300-1000 AD Christian era, and shows the influences of Pharaonic, Greco-Roman and Islamic art. Much of it is very impressive, including some wonderful old frescoes from the Jeremiah Monastery and old manuscripts. Some of the carved and painted wooden ceilings are fabulous. There are also textiles, pottery, metal work and more. This would have merited more time than we gave it.
From there we move on to the Citadel, a fortress on a cliff, built to defend against the crusaders. The Citadel contains the famous mosque of Muhammed Ali, the Albanian who came to lead Egypt (who were weary of Turkish rule) in the early 19th century and who established a dynasty that lasted through King Farouk in 1952.
Ali, like the rest os the Arab world, except Iran and Iraq, was Sunni. The Sunnis differ from the Shiites in that the former believe that Muhammed was the sole messenger of God, while the latter believe that it was Muhammed's son-in-law, Ali. This difference, like other such seemingly kin or differences, has led to much bloodshed in the world.
We're driven to our hotel, The Four Seasons Nile Plaza, which is quite spectacular, in the Four Seasons' tradition. They're we're met by our man, Muhammed (nickname Kimo), who checks us in, while we sit in the lobby. Our room on the 27th floor has a spectacular view of the Nile, which is much more beautiful than I'd anticipated.
We relax in the room and then I go down for the felucca ride on the Nile that we'd booked, Carol passing. It's chilly enough that I'm glad to have taken a jacket. What a refreshing difference from Aswan and Luxor.
We shower and relax, awaiting dinner with Dick Kiphart's friend, Ahmed Alfi. So far, the dirt and impossible traffic we've been told to expect in Cairo has not materialized. But we have two more days.
Ahmed booked dinner at Spice, the Chinese restaurant in our hotel. I'd expected that it would be the three of us, but, in fact, the were nine. Ahmed and his wife, a business associate of his, Frank, who lives in LA, and his wife, Mona. Both Ahmed and Frank were lavish in their praise of Dick and William Blair. Of the others, Sherif Waheed Rasfat was the most interesting. From a family of prominence, his father a well-known lawyer, who was imprisoned in the 50s, when Sherif was ten, (and later fled the country)he had been in various businesses, including running Kidder's London office, being the head of the stock exchange in Cairo, being involved in a high-end Eco-tourism business with an environmentalist partner and currently running half a dozen or so funds. He had strong and well- thought-out views of modern Egyptian history and economics, and was not reluctant to share them. Carol and the two other women were seated at the other end of the table, and held their own conversations. At our end discussions ran from iPads to business, politics and travel. Ahmed seems passionately interested in new ideas and is committed to helping develop entrepreneurs. The other two men were a business friend of Ahmeds who had traveled in South and East Africa, and attended Bradley University in Peoria and a fellow named Sammy, who was a friend of Frank's that Ahmed did not know. Ahmed was a very kind host and the dinner itself was excellent.
We did not finish until after midnight, which made for a short morning before our 6 AM wakeup call.
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