07 Sep 2023
We visited three sites today, including the Mohammed Ali mosque, the Hanging Church, and also Saints Sergius and Bacchus Churches. The mosque and churches were very beautiful.
We also opted in for an optional visit to a papyrus shop, a spices shop, a cartouche shop, and a cotton shop at the end of the visit. We got an intro/ taster at each store and the shop assistants weren’t driving a hard sell which is good. We actually had a good conversation with some of them without any purchase.
What made the tour special was our guide Hader - she gave us a clear concise guide of each site and helped us with our photos. She was very helpful with our questions about history, religion, and also culture of the Egyptian people, which to me added color to each site. Our tour also ended up being 6 hours rather than 4 because of us taking our time at shops; but Hader and our driver were very patient and did not rush us at any time.
All in all I enjoyed my tour of Islamic and Coptic Cairo with Hader today and would recommend this trip.