Wide angle drama

Zorro - one of the most well behaved Alsatian dogs I've ever met.

Taken with the Canon EOS 400D at 18mm (28mm eq on 35mm).

Flowers

Taken with the Canon EOS 400D

Red Lily with the stock 18-55 Canon zoom lens

White lily with the same Canon lens

Yellow flower with a Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF Macro at 80 mm

With the Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF Macro at 80mm

An orange lily with the Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF Macro at 80mm

A pink hibiscus with the Sigma 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 AF Macro

With a Tamron 24-135 3.5/5.6 SP AD

Cairo - The Citadel, The Alabaster Mosque and other pictures

The Alabaster Mosque at the Citadel of Salah el-Din sits atop a limestone hill overlooking Cairo and is the most important mosque in the city. 

Still used a place of worship today by the Muslims of Cairo, the architectural masterpiece opens its doors to visitors of all faiths. The lower part of the Mosque is clad inside and out with Alabaster, while the top part is said to be constructed from the limestone cladding removed from the Pyramids of Giza.

The Muhammed Ali mosque in the Citadel, towering over Cairo

The city of the Living dead

It is a four mile-long set of cemeteries located on the eastern side of Cairo. It is also home to nearly a million people, many of whom were forced from crowded ghettos in Cairo.

For many who live in Cairo, the City of the Dead is a mysterious, foreboding area. Many are aware of its existence but few understand this group of vast cemeteries that stretches out along the base of the Moqattam Hills.

The Muhammed Ali mosque (also known as the Alabaster Mosque) in the skyline. In the front is the city of the living dead

A silhouette of the mosque in the evening light with the sun behind the structure

The mosque in the twilight

Portraits of Cairo

Cairo is Africa's biggest city and one of the great cities of the world, where donkeys compete for road space with beaten up Peugeot 504s and clapped out Ladas.

These are some close-up and portraits of people in Cairo . . . and some interesting pictures of people and things.

Close-up of the belly dancer on our cruise on the Nile

The lady was looking at us intently from the bus window

The band leader conducting the brass band at the start of the Sound and Light Show at Giza

A musician on our cruise on the Nile

Shoppers at the Khan el Kalili Market, Cairo

A family at the Khan el Khalili Market

Shoppers at the Khan el Khalili Market, Cairo

Bedouins offering camel rides to tourists

A close up of the Sphinx

Head of the Sphinx in front of the Egyptian Museum

Homeward Bound - Pictures from the aircraft and the airports

Homeward bound . . .

Cairo Airport . . . a quaint little airport

Smoking area and eating area are the same...no gas chambers . . . making it the most smoker friendly airport I've seen.

From the aircraft window.
A view of the tarmac. A Quantas flight has just landed.

It just occurred that Egypt is mostly desert.

 

Just sand and sand

 

 

Over the Red Sea

Lamborghini at the Bahrain Duty Free.

Bahrain Duty Free - on seeing the prices I wondered if the duty was included in the price. The Canon EOS 400D was priced at a whopping $1459 US, nearly 1.5x the price in Calcutta. Add to that the duty one has to pay in the airport. You can possibly pick up a Nikon D300 at the end price.

A Porsche at the Bahrain Duty Free

A Courvoisier VS Cognac was $50 or thereabouts at Bahrain. Needless to say, the cheapest deal was at the Chennai International Airport - approx 40% cheaper than Bahrain.

Nile Cruise

A cruise on the river Nile. . .

"The Pharaohs" - a theme restaurant on the Nile - from where we started our cruise. The cruise boat is parked on the right hand side.

Decorations on the side of the boat

Entertainment . . . belly dancing

Accompanied by Egyptian musicians, a whirling dervish spins on the dance floor of the cruise boat on the Nile. Dervishes, traditionally members of the Sufi Muslim sect, which originated in Turkey, perform their order's ritual prayer by spinning.

I felt this was a majorly jazzed up version.



A bank of photographers trying to get a piece of the action . . .

The dancer asks one of our colleagues to try out the dance

. . . and she tries it out . . .

Another cruise boat on the Nile and a Police launch hovering close by

A view from the boat . . the Grand Hyatt Cairo