Tuesday, January-04-11 9:15AM
Not again to be dissuaded, we went directly to the Citadel yesterday. It is a vast fortress, within, like a town composed of mosques, palaces, and housing for lesser beings. We climbed first to the main mosque, built by Mohammed Ali Pasha, the ruler of Egypt from 1805-49. The Citadel was founded in the 12th century by the famous Salah-ad-Din, Saladin as we know him, the great fighter in the time of the Crusades. Egypt, being so centrally located at the junction of Africa, the Middle East, and by extension, Europe and Asia, became a major trading area, one fought over by warriors from all of these disparate lands. One of the groups, people from the Black Sea area, gained control not long after Saladin’s era. Known as the Mamelukes, a vast mercenary army in origin, they controlled Egypt up until the early 19th century. Though they were defeated by the Ottoman Turks in the early 16th century, they continued in power as vice-regents. In 1797 Napoleon famously invaded Egypt, further weakening the Ottoman connection. The French remained only about five years though their administrative reforms took some root. In their wake Mohammed Ali seized power. He himself was a mercenary from Turkey, the son of a tobacco merchant, and a member of the forces sent from Istanbul to reassert the Ottoman regime. He built up his position in Egypt and then set out to overthrow the Ottomans in other parts of their empire. Assisted by the British, however, the Ottomans defeated him in Syria. As a consolation prize he was allowed to become the “hereditary viceroy” in Egypt, where he became in reality the de facto ruler.
In 1869 the Suez Canal was opened for international traffic. Its enormous cost made Egypt not only indebted to European powers but in various ways subject to them. Finances were placed under the joint supervision of the French and British. The resultant outbreaks of violent protest led to a British bombardment of Alexandria and the occupation of Cairo. Thereafter Egypt continued to function with the hereditary Pasha as ruler of an Ottoman province, though in fact under British supervision. After 1914 the connection with the Ottomans was finally severed and Egypt became a British protectorate with a nominal monarchy. This situation continued until the 1950s when the monarchy was overthrown and General Nasser took control. The Brits didn’t contest this event, as it coincided well with their own devolution of empire, the main agenda since the end of WWII.
All of the above gives a tiny bit of the complicated and often bloody history of this area. The Citadel in a way reflects a great deal of that history as it was the central locus of control for each regime. Mohammed Ali built a number of the fortifications, as well as the immense mosque named after him which dominates the skyline, and, a palace in which he and his family lived, called the Harem palace. The latter is now the site of a museum of the Egyptian military. We walked through its halls and sizable rooms during our visit. The exhibits consisted mainly of large paintings showing battles and renowned fighters as early as the era of Saladin. There are busts of important figures: 19th and 20th century pashas, generals, and other leaders. A special section rehearses some of the events of the military take-over in 1954 with special mention of Nasser and Anwar Sadat. Military costumes and medals over the centuries are visible in glass-encased cupboards. Outside in the courtyard are actual fighter planes used in wars against Israel, most, if not all, of Soviet origin. We were quite alone in our walk-through, though a large group of school-aged children left just as we approached the palace, so a significant feature of our visit was taking in the grandeur of the former home of Mohammed Ali and his family.
We looked for another museum written about in our guide book, the Police Prison Museum. We only found one small area off to the side, close to the terraces that overlook the city. The doors were closed and locked. A man standing nearby beckoned to us to follow him. He took us literally through a barrier – we stooped to go under one section and over another. From there he led us into two enclosed alleyways. On either side were individual cells of former prisoners. On one was a plaque showing the cell in which Anwar Sadat had once been a guest of the British. On another was a sign indicating that Mohammed Ali had been a prisoner there as well. Our guide, who indicated things to us only by pointing, took us into one of the cells which was not locked. It was small and barren with no light other than that coming from a hole in the rather high ceiling. He pointed to a rack on the wall, rather like a clothing rack, where a prisoner could be tied with his arms extended while he was whipped. Another area seems to have been one where prisoners were hung. It was a chilling visit. Our guide brought us back to the terrace area. I gave him some unsolicited baksheesh, we thanked each other and moved on.
We left the Citadel not long afterward, going over once again to the Khan Al Kalili for a take-away lunch and another visit to the mosque. From there we walked a couple of miles through the east side streets to the Metro and back home. Late this morning we headed over to Gezira, the island in the Nile close to our hotel. At the north end of the island is the tony Zamalek area that we have visited several times. At the extreme southern end is the Sofitel. We planned a lunch on the floating restaurant that is just off their ground floor terrace. We arrived an hour before they were ready to serve but waited in their comfortable wicker chairs on the terrace, surrounded by greenery and cooled by the breezes from the Nile. It is a quiet and peaceful spot, a respite from the noise and chaos that is most of Cairo. The lunch was an excellent meal, eaten right at the edge of the restaurant, immediately overlooking the Nile, a wide and brown river at this point. Just as we were about to take our places an enormous flotilla of police motor and pontoon boats came racing along the river in our direction. They congregated in the vicinity of a huge fountain several hundred meters away. Our head waiter said that they were “doing a show,” that is, were making their presence obvious in the area because of recent tensions.
There clearly has been an increased level of police and military alertness in the city over the past several days since the car bomb was exploded at a Coptic church in Alexandria. Tomorrow is the Copt’s Christmas Eve and the police are striving to make a strong showing in preparation. As we passed by the Cairo Marriott hotel in Zamalek today we noticed that each car coming into the entrance is given a brief inspection with a sniffer dog. Our hotel has good security at a much lower level -- a security guard sits at the door, greeting us as we go in and out. But we don’t have the kind of wealthy, international clientele that might draw the attentions of anyone wanting to make a statement against the government. We are so far below that kind of radar as to be non-existent.
I hope all are well. Scroll down for some photos of the Sofitel and the Citadel. Cheers. Brenda.
No comments:
Post a Comment