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(Click on any of the pictures below for larger images)

Medinat Nasr

This is Makram Obeid, an area midway from Fajr to Medinat Nasr town centre. It is typical of an average rent area for students. It's all apartment blocks (just like all of Cairo), a bit dustier than some parts (most of Medinat Nasr is - since it's a new development in the desert on the eastern edge of Cairo), but alhamdulillah it's decent. Most roads are narrow and drivers often a bit crazy - you have to be very careful crossing the big roads!

Close to the centre of town (i.e. all the main shops) and Diwan, and Nile schools, is the Hadeeka Dawliyah (International Park) area. A bit more expensive, but it has the big park, and a lot of students from the Far East, and more of the larger masjids. Most areas have some sort of park - but they are family picnicking places (or rather smoking and holding hands for local youngsters) not football pitches etc. There are sports clubs available elsewhere in Medinat Nasr however - ask the locals.

All the fast food chains are there (not very good quality mind), and local fresh stuff is much nicer. The streets and parks are well watered with beautiful exotic green trees and vegetation growing along a lot of roads, alhamdulillah.

Main entrance to Fajr school - most buildings tend to look a bit run down from the outside in Egypt, but inside they're normally done up nicely. Plus some typical classroom furniture shown in picture two.

 

Other Places In Cairo

The Blue Nile. One of the rivers of paradise (from a hadith of the Rasul (saw)), and one that has never dried since the second Caliph Umar's (ra) letter was dropped in it. Second picture shows the Cairo Tower, apparently their answer to the Eiffel Tower. You can go to the top, but it costs. You can get a felucca boat ride for an hour for approx. 70LE; seats 12 people. The river carries bilharzia worm (causes blindness), so don't swim in it!

Old Islamic Cairo, (Cahira Qadeema) has lots of very old masjids. First picture shows Amr ibn Al-Aas masjid - this is where Amr ibn Al-Aas (ra) first pitched his tent upon the initial conquest of Egypt over a thousand years ago. A very big masjid, and on the 27th Ramadan has some of the best qaris in the world leading Tarawih salat (eg. Ahmed Jibreel). 

Al-Azhar - the masjid is the site of the first university in the world. Initially the students would all learn in the masjid shown here, but now there are campuses spread all over Cairo. A classroom is also shown. This masjid, as with many others, has graves within it. The government is trying to set up many old masjids as 'tourist' sites, where local officials will try to charge you money to enter and look around.

Salahudeen Ayubi (Saladin) built The Citadel (Al Qala) on the highest spot in Cairo when he took it. First picture shows the masjid Muhammed Ali (a Macedonian mercenary turned sultan) built within The Citadel. When Napoleon later invaded Cairo, he put his cannons there, and shot down at the Muslim rebels who gathered in the two masjids below.

Muhammed Ali masjid, on top of The Citadel, stands out as a landmark amongst the overcrowded tower block apartments. The Sultan Hassan and Ar-Rifai are the two masjids visible from The Citadel, shown in picture two. These places are huge by today's standards here in the West, and have beautiful architecture and designs, along with graves.

Picture one shows Al-Azhar university building, which was made when the original masjid became too small. Al-Azhar is now spread all over Cairo at various campuses, including one in Medinat Nasr. Picture two shows Imam Hussein masjid - right next to Al-Azhar and Kaan-el-Kalili market. This place makes the bogus claim of having Imam Hussein's head inside. There are many such false masjids, purporting to hold bodies of famous people or sahabi, where ignorant people go to do bida'as.

The City Of The Dead, was a huge burial area hundreds of years ago. Due to lack of money and the intense population pressure, some of poorest families have now lived amongst these graves for generations. Second picture shows Islamic Cairo's ancient and narrow streets. Imam Shafi's grave is in this area, in one of the masjids here.

The hazy skyline of Cairo - the largest city in Africa. Second picture shows some waste disposal techniques! It seems people have just dumped their rubbish on top of their neighbour's house. Sadly rubbish is piled up on many street corners like this, creating really bad stinks during summer.

Towards central Cairo the roads are wider, but with the one of the most dense populations of any city in the world, the traffic is awesome. To add to this the pavements are usually in a bad way, and hence people tend to walk on the roads. There is an Islamic Museum (Mathaf Islamiyya) in central Cairo, as well as the well known Egyptian Museum, which houses all Pharaonic based stuff

The old traditional styled souk in central Cairo, next to Al-Azhar, called Kaan-el-Kalili, sells stuff aimed at tourists. It's filled with people after your money, and you have to bargain for everything. Picture two shows Talaat Harb - Cairo's equivalent of Oxford Street. Shops are open late in Cairo, as most people go shopping in the evening.

A lot of buildings in central Cairo are in the colonial style - signs of old European influence. Second picture shows modern Western influences in Cairo around the Hilton, Midan Tahrir area.

Outside of Cairo city, along the banks of the Nile, there are very lush areas, with vegetation and trees. Irrigation is done with water from the Nile, and it makes the strip along the Nile some of the most fertile land in Northern Africa. During the Dawla of the Osmanli (Ottoman Caliphate) Egypt was the main bread basket for the Dawla.

(Click on any of the pictures below for larger images)

Medinat Nasr

This is Makram Obeid, an area midway from Fajr to Medinat Nasr town centre. It is typical of an average rent area for students. It's all apartment blocks (just like all of Cairo), a bit dustier than some parts (most of Medinat Nasr is - since it's a new development in the desert on the eastern edge of Cairo), but alhamdulillah it's decent. Most roads are narrow and drivers often a bit crazy - you have to be very careful crossing the big roads!

Close to the centre of town (i.e. all the main shops) and Diwan, and Nile schools, is the Hadeeka Dawliyah (International Park) area. A bit more expensive, but it has the big park, and a lot of students from the Far East, and more of the larger masjids. Most areas have some sort of park - but they are family picnicking places (or rather smoking and holding hands for local youngsters) not football pitches etc. There are sports clubs available elsewhere in Medinat Nasr however - ask the locals.

All the fast food chains are there (not very good quality mind), and local fresh stuff is much nicer. The streets and parks are well watered with beautiful exotic green trees and vegetation growing along a lot of roads, alhamdulillah.

Main entrance to Fajr school - most buildings tend to look a bit run down from the outside in Egypt, but inside they're normally done up nicely. Plus some typical classroom furniture shown in picture two.

 

Other Places In Cairo

The Blue Nile. One of the rivers of paradise (from a hadith of the Rasul (saw)), and one that has never dried since the second Caliph Umar's (ra) letter was dropped in it. Second picture shows the Cairo Tower, apparently their answer to the Eiffel Tower. You can go to the top, but it costs. You can get a felucca boat ride for an hour for approx. 70LE; seats 12 people. The river carries bilharzia worm (causes blindness), so don't swim in it!

Old Islamic Cairo, (Cahira Qadeema) has lots of very old masjids. First picture shows Amr ibn Al-Aas masjid - this is where Amr ibn Al-Aas (ra) first pitched his tent upon the initial conquest of Egypt over a thousand years ago. A very big masjid, and on the 27th Ramadan has some of the best qaris in the world leading Tarawih salat (eg. Ahmed Jibreel). 

Al-Azhar - the masjid is the site of the first university in the world. Initially the students would all learn in the masjid shown here, but now there are campuses spread all over Cairo. A classroom is also shown. This masjid, as with many others, has graves within it. The government is trying to set up many old masjids as 'tourist' sites, where local officials will try to charge you money to enter and look around.

Salahudeen Ayubi (Saladin) built The Citadel (Al Qala) on the highest spot in Cairo when he took it. First picture shows the masjid Muhammed Ali (a Macedonian mercenary turned sultan) built within The Citadel. When Napoleon later invaded Cairo, he put his cannons there, and shot down at the Muslim rebels who gathered in the two masjids below.

Muhammed Ali masjid, on top of The Citadel, stands out as a landmark amongst the overcrowded tower block apartments. The Sultan Hassan and Ar-Rifai are the two masjids visible from The Citadel, shown in picture two. These places are huge by today's standards here in the West, and have beautiful architecture and designs, along with graves.

Picture one shows Al-Azhar university building, which was made when the original masjid became too small. Al-Azhar is now spread all over Cairo at various campuses, including one in Medinat Nasr. Picture two shows Imam Hussein masjid - right next to Al-Azhar and Kaan-el-Kalili market. This place makes the bogus claim of having Imam Hussein's head inside. There are many such false masjids, purporting to hold bodies of famous people or sahabi, where ignorant people go to do bida'as.

The City Of The Dead, was a huge burial area hundreds of years ago. Due to lack of money and the intense population pressure, some of poorest families have now lived amongst these graves for generations. Second picture shows Islamic Cairo's ancient and narrow streets. Imam Shafi's grave is in this area, in one of the masjids here.

The hazy skyline of Cairo - the largest city in Africa. Second picture shows some waste disposal techniques! It seems people have just dumped their rubbish on top of their neighbour's house. Sadly rubbish is piled up on many street corners like this, creating really bad stinks during summer.

Towards central Cairo the roads are wider, but with the one of the most dense populations of any city in the world, the traffic is awesome. To add to this the pavements are usually in a bad way, and hence people tend to walk on the roads. There is an Islamic Museum (Mathaf Islamiyya) in central Cairo, as well as the well known Egyptian Museum, which houses all Pharaonic based stuff

The old traditional styled souk in central Cairo, next to Al-Azhar, called Kaan-el-Kalili, sells stuff aimed at tourists. It's filled with people after your money, and you have to bargain for everything. Picture two shows Talaat Harb - Cairo's equivalent of Oxford Street. Shops are open late in Cairo, as most people go shopping in the evening.

A lot of buildings in central Cairo are in the colonial style - signs of old European influence. Second picture shows modern Western influences in Cairo around the Hilton, Midan Tahrir area.

Outside of Cairo city, along the banks of the Nile, there are very lush areas, with vegetation and trees. Irrigation is done with water from the Nile, and it makes the strip along the Nile some of the most fertile land in Northern Africa. During the Dawla of the Osmanli (Ottoman Caliphate) Egypt was the main bread basket for the Dawla.
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