mummies, towers and a bazaar of colors

Khan el-Khalili: is a major souk in the Old City of Cairo. The bazaar district is one of Cairo's main attractions for tourists and Egyptians alike.

One of the favorite lines used by the shop vendors : "you Egyptian?" or some variation of such a question...which is funny because if they really thought we were Egyptian then they would have asked us in Arabic and not English but hey, it got me to look the first time. After walking a block or two I started to just ignore the vendors questions and attempts to attract our attention. It was funny because then they would start running through all the languages. It was amazing, many of these vendors spoke Italian, Spanish, French, of course English and who knows what else. As I was walking one vendor started running through "where you from" first in English, then Spanish, then what sounded like Arabic and so I stopped. I asked him how many languages he spoke and he said FIVE! It was amazing. I just shook my head in amazement. He admitted he only knew enough to make a sale. But still, I was impressed. Shopping at the Suq, Arabic for market was fun and I had the best Lamb Kofta and let me tell ya, I'm hard to please when it comes to lamb. Below are some photos I took while walking through the Suq.

spices, tea, and shisha tobacco

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shave?
well lucky you can get this service curb side in Cairo

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Hookah!

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bargaining for a good price on a couple belly dancing outfits
fyi: they are not cheap
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al-Hussein Square (next to Khan el-Khalili)

to say crossing the street is dangerous in Cairo would be an understatement
but the Egyptians make it look easy

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The Egyptian Museum is filled with ancient Egyptian antiquities including royal mummies, since we are poor students we didn't pay the extra fee to see them up close and personal but we did peek in and see some pretty old royals with some serious cheek bones...
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No photography allowed inside, so all you get to see is the front entrance.

Back in the cab driving along, holding our breath, crossing our fingers and hoping not to die today although after seeing all that I have up to this point, I could say I would have died happy. But alas I'm still on this earth and hungry for more...

The Cairo Tower is a huge tower on Gezira Island in the River Nile, in the city center. At 187 metres, it is 43 metres higher than the Great Pyramid of Giza. It is one of Cairo's most famous and well-known landmarks and looks beautiful at night when its completely lit up.

The Cairo Tower was built from 1956 to 1961. Its partially open lattice-work design is intended to look like a lotus plant. The tower is crowned by a rotating observation deck and a restaurant. The rotation takes 70 minutes to complete.

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I'm a sucker for sunsets,

with Cairo and old 70s cars as the backdrop
this moment and photo makes my soul smile