Photo Index for /hols/02-cairo/

Cairo is the largest city in Egypt and Africa. It has a population of about 18 million and is the cultural centre of the Islamic world. When we first arrived, the sheer immensity of it was overwhelming. Everything has a layer of dust/sand over it as it never rains, so nothing really gets cleaned. It's also pretty polluted, as one would expect. The traffic is absolutely crazy (and noisy!! The Egyptians seem to use the horn for every little thing when they're driving).

The architecture is as varied as the city's history. There seems to be a vast amount of unfinished buildings and piles of rubble. They suffered an earthquake in 1992 and it seems that a lot of the city still hasn't recovered from it. We also found out there are some sort of tax breaks for unfinished buildings so a lot of places are purposely left looking like contruction sites! Unbelievable!

We spent a couple of days in Cairo, wandering around and generally getting a feel for the place. These pictures are of our hotel, and other views of the city which we got while wandering around. Actually, one morning we decided to try and find the post office. After three hours we eventually found it. It took half an hour to find our way back :)

Map of Cairo
(view large one below for more detail)

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Pictures

Small - Large map of Cairo	Small - Large our hotel room	Small - Large view from our balcony	Small - Large
Small - Large	Small - Large hotel corridor	Small - Large the Cairo Museum	Small - Large
Small - Large	Small - Large	Small - Large	Small - Large El Abdin palace (we think)
Small - Large at the post office :)	Small - Large	Small - Large first glimpse on the way to Alex