Rabat Continued

Granted yesterday's post wasn't very inspiring. Frankly I'm a little disappointed with myself. Hopefully the rest of my Rabat pictures will make up for it though!

My hotel was in a great location, at the corner of the souk and right on a river that comes out of the Atlantic. So looking out my window this is was I saw:

The first full day in Rabat was sunny and beautiful which was a welcome change from the overcast, rainy, and cold weather I left behind in Istanbul. So we made sure to take advantage of the weather and walked around the city enjoying the water and some of the older, walled in sections of Rabat.

Subsequent days were sadly not as pleasant as the weather turned overcast, rainy, and cold. But we persevered and explored during our free time anyway! And while Francois Hollande had the poor grace to be in town and bar us lowly regular people from the Mausoleum of Mohammad V, we were able to go back another (equally overcast) day to see it.

The tower is actually a minaret for the mosque across the square

It's no Taj Mahal but it's also nothing to sneeze at. Also, that is a ridiculous expression.

It was so overcast I decided it looked better in B&W

 Inside the mausoleum was quite impressive though. I particularly liked the domed ceiling.

And despite their rather stern demeanor the guards were quite friendly and chatty and willing to pose for pictures.

We also paid a visit to to one of the walled off older sections of the city.

Love me some fancy doors!

I felt like I was back in Tunisia! I think there should be more blue and white cities. How could a person not want to live in one? This place was particularly peaceful as we couldn't hear any of the traffic or noise from the city outside.

Our last day we visited the Atlantic and found that an interesting group of people had already laid claim to the choicest of ocean front property.

A cemetery on the beach? Yup. As far as we could see stretched cemeteries. They saw that you can't take it with you; apparently these folks and their great view disagree,

That's not a blurry picture; that's sea spray

It was very windy and the ocean was very turbulent. That did not stop us or others from braving a soaking to walk along the pier that extended out into the ocean though. And while we were as salt encrusted as a good tuna when we got off the beach we did manage to avoid any serious soaking.

The weather also didn't stop the few people on the beach learning how to kite surf, a couple surfers insane enough to brave being smashed against the pier, and the football game happening on the beach. I did however resist the urge to take off my shoes and socks and wade in the water.

Is Rabat an exciting city? No. Not at all. Can you find things to do, eat, and buy while you're there? You bet. So while I get to check Morocco off my list, Marrakesh is still on it!

Postcards from Egypt: Temple of Amun at Karnak

Greetings from Egypt! Well, not really from Egypt right now, since I'm no longer there, but greetings to you, readers, just the same, as I retell the story of the highlights of my trip through Egypt last fall. Karnak Temple was one of the first stops on our journey, and probably one of my favorites. Though, who am I kidding, I think they were ALL my favorite! So here we go!

Around the time of the emergence of the New Kingdom, circa 1500 BCE, the Karnak Temple was dedicated to the Pharaoh Amun, and was where he and his wife Mut and son Khons would have worshipped.  And though it's hard to tell by the pictures, the site itself is enormous, covering 1x2 miles in area. Construction on the temple took place over 1300 years, sponsored by more than 30 different Pharaohs who gave the temple its 25 chapels, various shrines, and the 134 massive columns of the largest hypostyle hall in the world, one of the worlds greatest architectural acheivements. 

At one point, these sphinxes lined a road covering the two mile distance from Karnak Temple to the Temple at Luxor.  

It's difficult to capture the immensity of this place. Everything is absolutely huge, and even though much of the temple is in ruins, that does not detract from the sheer magnitude of everything which surrounds you. Think about it this way, this temple stood for two millenia as the ancient Egyptian-religious equivalent to the Vatican today. If you've ever been to the Vatican, and you remember how enormous the site is, this is exactly how Karnak makes you feel. 

There are 134 of these columns. They measure about 45 feet in diameter, and stand more than 70 feet high. As it was known that this section of the temple, the hypostyle hall was begun by Seti I, and finished by his son Ramses II.

 I found myself thinking about the movie the Prince of Egypt when I wandered through the columns:

I imagine that Moses might have walked through these them as well, in their full-color glory! Can't you just picture him among the columns and incense here? You can see that some of the color remains, even after all this time. 

This was definitely a great way to start off my trip, and again, Karnak was one of the most impressive parts of it, for its sheer size and historical significance. I was impressed far more by this temple, than by the Pyramids of Giza, which were also fantastic. When planning your trip to Egypt (and you must!), this location is a definite must for your list of things to see. 

Life in Cairo: Al-Azhar

On one particularly beautiful day, my roommates and I headed out for a walk in the area of Cairo around Al-Azhar Mosque. We'd already been into the depths of Khal el-Khalili souk, so we decided to walk around in other directions to see what there was to see. This was one of our last weekends together in Egypt, as one of our number already moved into her student room on the other side of town, I was leaving the next day for my organized tour of Upper Egypt, and the others only had a week left on their studies as well. Here are some highlights from our walkabout that day:

Beautiful Minaret

Kitschy tourist crap that I didn't buy

I think these were spices, though some of them could probably function as natural dyes

Prayer book inside the Hanging Church of Cairo

This boy was with his mother, selling tissues outside the underground walkway

When you look up, you see Cairo's colonial beauty

We covered quite a bit of ground this day, and all of us were marveling at just how beautiful Cairo really was (it is!). Though we'd all had our own negative experiences during our time there, those were no match for the stunning beauty, architecture, and hospitality that we all experienced from most people that we met. I was so lucky to have friends already living in Cairo, so the city actually triply blessed me with good fortune.

Books for sale in the Market outside the mosque

People selling prayer rugs, handcarved boxes,
books and other goods outside the mosque

As we continued our walk, we discovered another, hidden neighborhood, and decided to walk through it. I love doing this when I travel, because you never know what kind of gems you're going to find!

Boy selling drinks

It was so hot in Cairo when I was there, and the humidity, compared to Baghdad was nearly unbearable for me. I found a lot of refreshment in the various drinks sold in the juice shops in and around Cairo. The boy in this neighborhood was selling three different drinks to refresh passers by in the narrow passage ways where he'd set up his cart: Tamarhindi (tamarind juice) or Erk Sous (licorice), Sobieh (coconut milk juice), and/or Sugarcane juice. these are so delicious on a hot summer day (yes, even in September it's still summertime!). Though, I prefer, just as a precaution to buy my fresh juices from shops. Not that that always protects you from stomach bugs, but I've got to at least try. I pretty much am guaranteed to get sick eating food from street carts!

This breadmaker invited us into his shop to have a look at his bread. In Egyptian, bread is called, aieesh. There are three kinds - Shammie, which is basically just like any old white flour pita (though not to be underestimated, because YUM!), aieesh balady, or the bread of the people, and aieesh makamar, which is darker and crispy for making Fatta. The word for bread (in the Egyptian dialect), I think even gives a clue to just how important it is for living, because I think, Aieesh is also the word Egyptians use for "life."

When I asked if I could take a picture, he ushered us into his steaming hot bakery to show us how the bread was made. You can't imagine the amazing smell coming out of this shop! In the back were a couple of old men, and some young boys mixing the dough and preparing it for the roller and the ovens. 

And now I leave you with a last image from our walk this day. Another stunningly beautiful mosque on the skyline. This one, in particular caught my eye, just because of the blue windows next to it. 

I've still got a lot of ground to cover on my five weeks spent in Egypt. So, what next, dear 5 people who read this blog? Shall we head to Upper Egypt, or do you want some more on Cairo first? I promise I'll be more timely about posting these!