We did do some stuff in the morning, though. First we went to a large mosque in Cairo. We learned all about Islam (some more, but from a Muslim's perspective who we had gotten to know throughout the week.). And I mean Islam the religion, not Islam the tour guide :).
We talked about niches in Mosques, and how they always face Mecca, and that way when they pray they always know which way Mecca is. We also talked about the Mo'azzin, or the guy who calls people to prayer through song 5 times a day; the Imam, who is the preacher on their holy day, fridays; the Minaret, which is the tower that the Mo'azzin calls to prayer on top of (like a tower). He also said that they call to prayer through voice and song because Catholic churches already called to prayer with bells, and they wanted to respect Catholic practices as well as have their own, distinguishing way to call to prayer. Or at least I'm sure that's how Muhammad, their prophet who brought Islam to the earth, was. He had very good relations with all religions...sometimes Muslims today and other religions too, of course, clash at times...
Anyway, back to the Mosque. We learned about the domes and how they have them for acoustic purposes, and we had to take off our shoes when we entered.
Oh and they had a big fountain to wash with. They first wash their hands three times, and then their nose, then they was their mouth out, then their whole face, then the left arm, then the right arm, and then the ears. And Last they wash their feet. It's to purify their senses and those parts of their body that could be used to sin or dirty themselves.
This is the Mosque we went in. Unfortunately I can't remember the name of it...
This is Islam showing us how they pray with the nice behind him. He wasn't facing Mecca cause he was just demonstrating.
Me in the niche :)
This is a macro shot of the woodwork in the mosque on the pulpit...They dont' believe in having images of people in their mosques, because they believe that is a form of idolotry, so it's mostly caligraphy and decorative plant designs.
Me in front of the fountain area where they wash... The pink dots Islam always gave us to distinguish our group from others. He called our grop "Tut" Like, King Tut...but apparently it's pronounced "Toot" Instead of how we pronounce it...and so he'd call us "Toot" in his accent and everything and make puns, like "Toot! Toot, faster Toot!" Or, "You lazy toot!" "Or "Toot, quickly please!" It was interesting...and funny...and after a while it got a teeny tiny bit old... but still funny.
Me again! Fountain again!
This is inside the Mosque, they had tons and tons of hanging lanterns that were lit inside, suspended under the domes. It was amazing.
Just kind of an artsy shot :)After that we got back on the bus, and there was KFC waiting for each of us in our seats! It was manna from heaven, seriously! The one issue is that it's finger food and Egypt was a germaphobe's nightmare. But, we sanitized, and I didn't get sick the whole time in Egypt! It was wonderful!
After that we started off for the Sinai Penninsula for the next day's adventure!
And after a long bus ride, we arrived in the middle of nowhere...or it seemed that way, at a really nice hotel, at about nine o'clock. Then we had dinner, and tried to go to bed, because we had a 2 a.m. wake-up call the next morning!
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