A Canadian Girl in Cairo: The Doors of Hell Opened, and then Opened Again

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Doors of Hell Opened, and then Opened Again

Or so the people here say…I haven’t talked about this yet, but the heat is intense. I arrived during a heat wave, and I have never felt anything like it. It was about 46 degrees Celsius out, with humidity of about 30%...the Internet says feels like 52. So you can see how the doors of hell have opened! I didn’t deal too well with the heat that week, from being dehydrated and jet lagged. I had heat exhaustion at one point which just goes to show how bad it is. I make sure now that I drink about 3-4 litres of water a day!
The heat is constant, but the heat wave broke…to a lovely 36 degrees Celsius! This is actually manageable, most days.

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Information About Cairo

The Lonely Planet says: “The crowds on a Cairo footpath make Manhattan look like a ghost town; your life will flash before your eyes each time you venture across the street, and your snot will run black with the smog”. All true!

The Lonely Planet also says: “This city has an energy, palpable even at 3 in the morning, like no other. It’s the product of 20 million people simultaneously crushing the city’s infrastructure under their collective weight and lifting the city’s spirit up with their uncommon graciousness and humour”. Again, all true (try finding water in any tap in my flat around 6 pm during Ramadan- EVERYONE is using water to cook!)

“So blow your nose, crack a joke and learn to look through the dirt the see the city’s true colours. If you love Cairo, it will love you back”. So far, so good!

The ancient Roman city of Babylon is where Cairo started. The core foundations were started in 969 AD by the Fatimids, who conquered the old city and began a new one. They named it Al- Qahira after the planet Mars (the Europeans butchered the name and it became Cairo). There are many buildings that still exist that were built in that time, and in times before that. Cairo is considered the Mother of the World, as it survived dynasties and Pharaohs whims as the city grew larger than its walls. The effects of each ruler can be seen in certain areas of the city. Cairo continues to grow today, with suburbs now reaching the pyramids. The estimated population for Cairo is 20 million people!