Saturday, March 28, 2009

Cairo , Traffic, Lunch with Giza in the background

Egyptian Museum
Cairo (Arabic: القاهرة transliteration: al-Qāhira), which means "the triumphant", is the capital and largest city in Egypt and Africa. It is the most populous metropolitan area in Egypt and is also one of the most populous in the world. It is the Arab World's largest [3] and Africa's most populous city.[4] While Al-Qahirah is the official name of the city, in Egyptian Arabic it is called by the dialect's name for the country, Masr (Egypt's first Arab capital, Fustat, was known as Misr al-Fustat, "City of the Tents").

Cairo was founded by the Fatimid caliphs as a royal enclosure. It replaced Fustat as the seat of the government. It later came under the Mamluks, was ruled by the Ottomans 1517 to 1798, and briefly occupied by Napoleon. Muhammad Ali of Egypt made Cairo the capital of his independent empire from 1805 to 1882, after which the British took control of it until Egypt attained independence in 1922.

More INFORMATION here!

Transportation in Cairo comprises an extensive road network, rail system, subway system and maritime services. Cairo is the centre of almost the entire Egyptian transportation network

Smoked Fish was awesome

So was the Lamb, yummers my favorite

A No rules place to drive YIKES! Pita bread fresh was awesome with the amazing hummus
What glorious smells wafted through the air
Relaxing with friends
Cairo Streets
Before I take you to Giza and the Pyramids I felt it worthwhile to share the TRAFFIC experience of the largest city in Africa, it is home to at least 18million people. Red lights did not necessarily mean "stop" or even "slow". Cars flooded through red lights with horns blaring to warn anyone who might consider getting in the way. Some of the horns must be equipped with on-off switches that were locked in the "on" position.

5 comments:

Coy Hill said...

Glad to see you’re back safe & sound Dee. I’ll be checking back to see what you have posted of your amazing trip.

Anonymous said...

Your descriptions sounded like mine in 1953-56 Japan. It started with no cars, trucks or buses except jeeps and people ruled the roads. But by 1956 there were more cars, trucks and buses and three-wheel pickup motorcycles. Nice photography.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Dee for your comment....
I have to come back,
to look at all your pictures..
What a great trip:))
Gisela

Lilli & Nevada said...

Oh gosh what a great journey you had.. trying to catch up here

Jenny said...

The horns are unbelievable! It's the loudest city I've ever visited.
Jenny