All posts in Egypt

TOP 10 BEVERAGES IN EGYPT

By | April 2, 2010 | Egypt, Food + Beverages, Travel + Leisure | 50 Comments
Strawberries and Melons.

Strawberries and Melons.

by Islam El Shazly

Because of its location on the Mediterranean and the crossroads between Africa and Asia, Egypt has access to a lot of fruits that might not be available in other places in the world, particularly North America. Some of these fruits are exotic by European and North American standards; while others are common everywhere. I tried to have fresh juice in Canada, and frankly it didn’t come close to what we have over here.

Below is a list of just a few of the most brilliant drinks you can find in Egypt, and believe me there is an insane amount of cocktails available to satisfy even the most demanding taste buds.

Warning! Drooling might occur.

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AL MOWLED: THE BEGINING

By | February 21, 2010 | Egypt, History, Travel + Leisure | 2 Comments

by Islam El Shazly

Since we are in the early days of the month of Rabie’ Al Awwal, the third month of the Islamic Hijri Calendar, I thought it might be appropriate to write about the celebration of the Prophet’s (صلى الله عليه و سلم) birthday or Al Mowled Al Nabawi.

In every travel book that I read there’s a mention of Al Mowled, not just the Prophet’s (صلى الله عليه و سلم) but also for every so called “Saint” in Egypt. We have no sainthood in Islam, but that is a topic for another time insha’Allah.

Whirling Dirwish.

A very intoxicated-looking whirling dirwish.

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CITY OF A THOUSAND MINARETS

By | February 11, 2010 | Egypt, History, Travel + Leisure | 5 Comments

by Islam El Shazly

It has been a while since the last post; I’m still getting used to blogging, that, and been working on several articles and the guides pages at the same time.

Cairo; the city of a thousand minarets, that is what Cairo has been referred to in the past, and from time to time, it gets called by that name again, even though Cairo has way more than a 1000 minarets now.

In the older parts of Cairo there a lot of mosques that were build during the time of the Mamluks, they were not one dynasty, rather a sultan after the next. Mamluk literally means ‘owned’, i.e., slave.  The Mamluks were an amalgam of Turks, Uzbeks, Caucuses, Circassians, and Chechnians, among others. The trend of purchasing them as young boys and train them in the arts of war started during the Abassid’s dynasty, and reached a peak at the time of Salah El-Deen, the Mamluks that ruled the Muslim world after the death of the last Ayubid Sultan are the ones who eventually built most of the Islamic monuments that one would see in old Cairo.

Colonnades inside ibn Tulun mosque.

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BUMPER CARS, OR GOING WITH THE FLOW.

By | January 20, 2010 | Egypt, Travel + Leisure | 2 Comments

by Islam El Shazly

Driving in Egypt, it’s certainly an experience. It goes hand in hand with ‘crossing the streets in Egypt’ experience. You cannot have one without the other.

It’s the most advanced game of cat and mouse; Need for Speed and all those racing games combined don’t even come close to this. Here’s how it works, you get in the car, start it, if it’s an older car you need to warm it up for a while, then go. The rules are simple, if you are the driver you have to think on your toes, literally, you have to keep an eye on the road while manoeuvring pedestrians, other cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, the odd dog or cat that bolts across the street all of a sudden, children not higher than a car’s bumper also need to be avoided, and every driver that chooses the perfect blind spot in your mirrors to come at you from behind. Phew.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sklender/114692158/

Normal everyday Cairo traffic. By sklender, Flickr.

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WHEN IN ROME…

By | January 7, 2010 | Egypt, Travel + Leisure | 2 Comments

by Islam El Shazly

When in Rome do as the Romans do. I was told by a group of drunk foreigners, when I was travelling once, that since I’m in the west at the moment then I should behave like them, and since they were drunk, they wanted me to drink as well. They claimed that when they go to a Muslim country like Egypt or Morocco, they follow the rules of the country.

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