Cairo, City of the Sun

by Rob Bock

Cairo is a city of duality. Every aspect of the city has its opposite, starting with the waters of the mighty Nile that run through the dry desert and bring life to this great city. Then there are the manifold contrasts between ancient and modern, and the peaceful places to be found among the daily commercial bustle.

Tranquil sidewalk-cafés
Next to the dense traffic of both cars and pedestrians are tranquil sidewalk-cafés and restaurants where people sip their tea, and have a bite to eat. Modern shopping malls in the city compete for customers with the hundreds of small shops and stalls in the charming, narrow alleyways of Khan Al-Khalili. Places to eat vary from luxurious restaurants to vendors in the streets from whom one can buy a hearty traditional Egyptian breakfast of fuul (mashed fava beans, served with bread) for less than two Egyptian pounds. Fast cars and heavy trucks still have to slow down from time to time for a donkey-cart. Huge cruise ships and luxurious yachts share the waters of the Nile with unhurried feluccas of ancient design.


Pyramids on the far horizon
I was standing behind a low wall at the Citadel overlooking the city of Cairo. It was an exceptionally clear day and I could see the pyramids on the far horizon. Minarets, skyscrapers and apartment buildings filled the enormous expanse between me and those ancient pharaonic monuments. I knew that I looked over the heads of millions of people who live and work in the multitude of buildings that make up the city.

Memphis
Memphis was the capital of the Old Kingdom at the time that the pyramids were built and Cairo was not founded until 969 - not long ago in a country whose recorded history goes back some 6000 years. Yet to the Cairenes ? the inhabitants of Cairo ? Cairo is Egypt and visa-versa. The Arabic word Masr is even used for both the city and the entire country.


Looking from antiquity into the future
There is still one island on the Nile, close to the centre of Cairo where life is lived as it was 1000 years ago. To get there we had to board a small ferry. Once on the island, it was as if we looked from antiquity into the future. We saw the skyscrapers of luxury-hotels, government buildings and offices lining the river on both sides of us. We saw the Cairo Tower and the huge five-star hotels in the distance, we heard the heavy traffic racing over the bridge above us, yet where we were there was not a single car, only small houses and a couple of tiny food-shops. Children played in the narrow, unpaved streets and men worked in the fields where water-buffalo and oxen ploughed the mud. Women did their washing in the water of the Nile while sharing the latest gossip. How long, I wondered, will this last piece of tranquility survive the onslaught of modern life, only a few metres of Nile-water away?


Loud hammering
I love Cairo. I start the day happily when I hear the call for morning prayer coming into my bedroom from the loudspeakers of three mosques in the neighbourhood at five o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I wake up when I hear the noise of loud hammering on metal. It comes from a donkey-cart whose owner delivers full gas-bottles for kitchen use and collects the empty ones. The man on the cart knocks a piece of metal against one of the empty bottles. He told me that it sounds louder if he leaves the valve open. By now the traffic has picked up again so that the hooting starts. Through it all I hear the voices of people in the streets. Rooms in the big hotels have double glass in the windows to keep the noise out. How boring!

Sweet fragrances
My wife and I love to stroll through Khan al-Khalili, the main bazaar. We like to look at the craftwork on sale and to inhale the sweet fragrances of spices and of perfumes sold in bottles that are miniature masterpieces of glass-art. When we get tired we retire to Fishawi's Coffeehouse or have something to eat in the restaurant dedicated to Nobel Laureate writer, Naguib Mahfouz.

Tutankhamun
A visit to the Egyptian Museum still thrills me even though I have been there so often. I cannot believe the incredible beauty of so many artefacts in the museum. The stunning golden mask of Tutankhamun is truly breathtaking. The museum contains so much beauty that it has become too small for its ever growing collection. Growing, not because of multi-million-dollar acquisitions, but because, under the expert leadership of Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of The Supreme Council of Antiquities, still more of Egypt's treasures are being found in the country. When I saw a metal-worker carrying out his trade at a table outside his shop in Khan al-Khalili I thought of the golden throne of Tutankhamun, also at the museum. It was interesting to see that this art is still practised today.

Ancient design
If the many impressions of Cairo become too much to absorb, a felucca ride on the Nile is most relaxing. The moment the boat floats away from the pier and its sail catches the breeze, a timeless tranquillity sets in that is hard to describe. On the boat, of ancient design, one can get some distance from the nearby hustle and bustle of the city. Suddenly it becomes quiet and the 17 million other people in Cairo seem a long way off. The reflection of the blue sky in the clear waters of the Nile makes the river more blue than any other river that I have seen.

Hauling in the nets
Some people like to stay on the felucca to watch the sunset, but I prefer to go back ashore and spend the evening in one of the riverside restaurants or parks and gaze at the sun going down behind the palm trees on the opposite bank. Often I see a kingfisher hovering above the water before dashing down into a dive to catch a fish for dinner. I see fishermen on small rowing-boats, hauling in their nets, assisted by wife and children. I have been told that they live on the small boats in the same way they did in pharaonic times.


Pleasant unpredictability
Indeed Cairo is timeless. The most modern facilities coincide harmoniously with ancient scenes. At the 1000-years-old camel market of Cairo I saw traders doing their business by mobile phone. I also saw a buyer carrying the camels that he had bought from the market in a Mercedes truck. Life in Cairo can be an adventure in its pleasant unpredictability. Don't count on your daily route to work. Tomorrow the familiar road may suddenly have been changed into single direction traffic. But there are also things that will be there forever, like the pyramids and the great sphinx at the very edge of greater Cairo and, perhaps most important of all, the friendly people of that enormous metropolis. There are many words that come to my mind when I want to write about Cairo. Of these I find 'fascinating' the most appropriate, though it is hard to find a word that really does this ancient city justice