"CAIRO on my mind " Cairo by Ramonq

click: Modern Egyptian music

I had trepidations about Cairo because I imagined that the incessant pestering of street hawkers I encountered all over Egypt, would be multiplied here a thousand fold. For many Egyptians, Cairo is Egypt. In fact, the Egyptian name for Cairo, "Al-Masr", is also the Egyptian name for Egypt! The statistics can be also daunting. Here is the city with the largest population in Africa and one of the densest city in the world. So I imagined I will be crushed by a sea of humanity.

But as soon as I got off the Ramses train station after travelling all the way from Aswan and found my way to my hotel in downtown, all the fears disappeared. Yes, the air pollution is bad and the traffic, extremely noisy, but as my taxi drove around the city centre, I can definitely feel that this is quite a worldly and sophisticated city. Downtown Cairo has a European/Mediterranean ambience and it has a sense of order about it.

Sphinx and Pyramid

Like many travellers to Cairo, the first thing on my mind was to see the pyramids! The pyramids themselves are located in the outer Western suburb of Cairo and it comes as a surprise that the Greater city of Cairo is just on the doorstep of this sacred site. When I first got the glimpse of the pyramids from a bus window, I had to pinch myself to make sure that the sight of this huge triangular structure was not a dream. I stood in great awe at this ancient monument in complete disbelief that after 5000 years, they're still captivating mankind. The pyramid and the sphynx conjure images of eternity and mystique.

The pyramids of Giza certainly stands out as Cairo's foremost must-see sight, if not, the world's.

Citadel

Cairo began to take its present complexion with the arrival of Islam in the 10th century. Although the Coptic Christians have already taken root in Cairo (they normally have crucifixes tatooed on their back hands), the Muslims have changed the appearance of the city by building impressive mosques and Arabic style palaces. Islamic art flourished in Cairo and it has become one of Islam's principal centres of learning.

As one walks the streets of old Cairo, one will notice the preponderance of madrassas which are centres of Islamic learning in many of its street corners. Some of these madrassas are quite grand and opulent. Old Cairo has a biblical appearance about it where bearded men wearing turbans and women all covered up doing their daily business along the very narrow labyrinthian streets.

This is the Cairo that everyone imagines it to be. Old, dusty, chaotic, crowded, noisy, and full of busy hawkers, donkeys, street kids and with the melodious sound of the wailing muezzins' call of prayer drowning out the street noise and the blaring Egyptian "habibi" music. This place is worth visiting to experience the real Cairo. The gates of Bab Zuweila, Bab-an Nasr and Bab al-Futuh are the main entrances to this historic district of Cairo.

Jump like an Egyptian

Egypt is completely dependent on the Nile River, the longest river in the world, and Cairo is no exception. The river cuts the city into two, however, so vast is the Nile, that there are large islands enough to accommodate whole Cairene suburbs right in the middle of the river.

The Nile River also serves as conduit to the cities and town upstream and downstream such as Alexandria to the north and Luxor or Aswan to the south. Here you'll see large boats, some quite luxurious, that ferries the millions of tourists to the ancient sights in Upper Egypt. The fabled feluccas, Egyptian sailboats, can be also seen sailing past.

The Nile

Cairo has grown tremendously that many world organisations are concerned that the city's infrastructure will not be able to cope soon. Yet it surprisingly does! From its origins as a walled medieval city called Al-Qahirah, the city has burst out of its ancient walls and grew westwards towards the Nile in the 19th century. This is where the Western influence arrived when Cairo's European-educated leaders invited architects from Europe to develop the new city. This was where my downtown hotel is located. Downtown Cairo has taken a Gallic ambience and this is also where the world famous Egyptian Museum is located. Churches and even synagogues can also be found in Downtown Cairo.

Cairo has spilled across the Nile River further West and has now encroached the desert all to way to Giza. It has grown in all directions mainly along the Nile River and new cities are being built towards the East. One of the most impressive is Heliopolis which now serves as a satellite city.

Cairo's tentacles varies from well-paved modern freeways to dusty potholed streets. There's even a modern Metro system and an antiquated railway network that connects the city to other parts of Egypt.

Skyline

Cairo is not all mosques and pyramids. This is a functioning modern city. Some of the most fashionable districts of Cairo are along the Nile River and they're well worth visiting just to escape from the hustle and bustle of Cairo. Zemalek is on an island in the middle of the river. Here one can see beautiful houses and stately mansions that now serves as foreign embassies.

Other pleasant areas to visit in Cairo are Mohandissen, Doqqi and Garden City. Many of Cairos urbane diversions can be located in these upmarket suburbs and some can be quite decadent for an Islamic city.

French District

The people of Cairo are a patient lot. The constant pushy crowd, the heat, the noise, the shouting and aggravation can be exasperating at times, but Cairenes just leave everything to Allah. "In-sha-Allah" or "leave it to God" is an everyday phrase used here. Inside buses and trains on the way to and from work, many passengers read their Korans studiously and simply ignore the cacophany of the modern world.

In the meantime the shadows of the pyramids still descend on Giza just like it has for thousands of years.

• Pros:archaeological gems
• Cons:the noise
• In a nutshell:More than the pyramids