One of our favourite places in Cairo turned out to be Al Azhar Park, that had previously been a rubbish dump but is a very nicely designed green space with a mediocre cafe and a fancy restaurant with excellent views over the city. Nearby is the Citadel which is mostly also Mosques and some other buildings now turned into museums where the former rulers were based. The main mosque there has an incredibly tall roof!
Nearby is an area where all the rubbish collectors live and work. Their housing didn't seem to be too bad (at least nowadays) as the area was full of brick buildings, and mostly the ground floors were where various sorts of rubbish were taken for sorting and processing, whilst people lived upstairs. Of course the place was not very attractive but it was quite interesting, and actually not that messy. I suppose most of the rubbish is not left on the floor but actually packaged up and sold!
Behind that area is a remarkable series of churches dug out of the cliff, holding thousands of people. They are not that old, but they are very impressive. I can't imagine what it would be like packed full of people. One is more like a typical amphitheatre rectangular in shape coming out of the cliff; another is similar but really dug out of the cliff; and a third is fully inside the rock and an entire semi-cicle. It is even more remarkable in a city that is so Islamic and full of thousands of mosques. A lot of western tour groups come to visit the Christian sites.
Some enterprising entrepreneurs had built some zip lines and high-wire activities up on the cliff which kept me entertained for a couple of hours, and since there is not much alcohol or bars in Cairo it was about as much entertainment as we had during our four days there.
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