Islamic Cairo

Today we went on a tour of some of the historically significant Islamic sites in Cairo. It was really hot, so it was a little hard to pay attention to our guide, but all of the sites were really beautiful and our teacher from Arabeya, Hasnaa, came along with us. First we went to the Ibn Tulun Mosque, then the Mosque & School of Sultan Hassan, then the House of Al-Suhaymi.

Around sunset we went to Al Azhar park, which was the only green space of that size that I've seen in all of Cairo. After that we just came back to the hotel and did homework and such.

1. Geometry: Today I fell in love with the geometric patterns in Islamic architecture.

2. The call to prayer: This is what we hear ringing through the city from every minaret 5 times a day. Sorry it's sideways, I couldn't figure out how to rotate it.

3. GREEN: I don't know if this is really true or if I'm just convincing myself that it is, but I felt like there was just a bubble of clean air over the park. Maybe it was just THAT refreshing to see green after so much city and desert. So this is Al Azhar Park: