0567 EGYPT (Cairo) - Cairo

About Cairo I wrote here, I will focus exclusively on the images depicted in the postcard, which I like it, because presents the all three main components that created the Egypt of today: Ancient Egypt, the Copts, and the Muslims.

● the statue of Rahotep & Nefert - now in Museum of Cairo, was discovered in a mastaba at Meidum in 1871. Rahotep (Ra is Satisfied) was a Prince in Ancient Egypt during the 4th dynasty, probably a son of pharaoh Sneferu and his first wife. Nefert (the Beautiful) was his wife.

● a painting from Bawit 7C - now in Coptic Museum, this painting was discovered at Bawit, an archaeological site (located 80km north of Asyut, near the village of Dashlout) which houses a cemetery and the ruins of the Hermopolite Monastery of Apa Apollo founded by Saint Apollo in the late 4th century. The Copts are the native Christians of Egypt, who spoke the Coptic language, a direct descendant of the Demotic Egyptian spoken in the Roman era, limited to liturgical use since the 18th century, and now near-extinct.

● the Alabaster Mosque (The great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha) - built by Muhammad Ali Pasha between 1830 and 1848, in memory of Tusun Pasha, Ali's oldest son, who died in 1816, it's the most visible mosque in Cairo.

I couldn't find any info about the stamps.

sender: Azzam Adil (direct swap)
sent from Cairo (Egypt), on 16.01.2012
photo: M. El-Bayoumy