We spent four days in the city of Cairo, which is the capital of Egypt. It is also the largest city in all of Africa and of the Arab world. It was a bit overwhelming when we first arrived. The city is massive with well over 20 million people and traffic was thick and quite daunting at times.

Although the traffic is busy all the time, they still manage to navigate well considering they only have a few traffic lights in the city. Most of the traffic lights are located in the very core of the city. The rest of the city has very limited traffic controls and most cars travel and navigate using their horn.

We were fortunate to have a bus to commute throughout the city. The driver was very good and he was amazing driving through the traffic. We filmed his driving at certain times when the traffic was very chaotic and congestion.

There were all kinds of unique and special things that we saw in the city of Cairo.  We explored many areas including the city of the dead, which is located near the historic area of Cairo.  There are numerous people who live in the city of the dead. The concept of “tomb-dwellers” took hold as more and more demand was placed on the overcrowding of the city. The lack of living space lead people squatting in tombs. The city estimates that currently there is half of a million people living in the city of the dead.

Cairo has a long history as a centre of the region’s political and cultural life. The city is known as “the city of a thousand minarets” because of the importance placed on Islamic architecture.  We saw first hand the beauty and numerous minarets in the city.  Below are just a few examples of some of the minarets we saw in Cairo.

On the outskirts of Cairo there are smaller communities all along the Nile River.  We travelled through some of these small communities on our way to different historic sites. We saw some street vendors selling their wares on the roadside.

There were many people using horses, donkeys and camels as means of transportation.

The communities had a very unique character and the people were very friendly. It was a great experience exploring some of the surrounding towns of Cairo.

We spent an incredible four days in Cairo, exploring some of the  extraordinary history of the city. This is one of the adventure that will remain in our hearts for ever.

“لا تدع الخوف يمنعك من تجربة شيء جديد”