Mosques Galore!!

this day we went on a huge tour of Islamic Cairo. In other words we went to a lot of Mosques, admiring the architechture. On top of all that we went to some of the more traditional houses that are still in Cairo, we went through the Old City of Cairo, we were in Khan Al-Khalili for a while. It was a really long day because we went to see so much, but to be truthful it was one of my favorite days. As much as i loved the pyramids and all that, i really geeked out over these buildings. i wish i could have taken more time to see a lot of them, but it just wasn't in the cards. Since coming back from Egypt there have been riots inside the Al-Azhar mosque (which is one of the photos). Al-Azhar is a huge part of Egyptian/Islamic history. It's also a University that is considered the center for Orthodox Sunni Islam, at least doctrinally. My favorite story was that when Napoleon rolled into Egypt and declared himself in charge, he and his cronies rode there horses into Al-Azhar mosque during prayer time just to show that they were conquerors. Rad. Napoleon also contemplated converting to Islam (because of his love for Alexander the Great, the endearing conqueror), but was unwilling to give up wine. Most of these pictures are of Mihrabs, which are niches in the wall that indicate the direction of Mecca, and thus the direction of prayer.