The Mother's Heart

Cairo, as a city of that name, began with the conquest of the old city of Fustat by Sallah el Din, better known in the west as Richard The Lionhearted's foe Saladin. He established the the heart of the old city of Cairo in his Citadel overlooking the city in the late 1170's. Sallah el Din was a Kurd, the first of the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt, just one of the many ethnic groups to come to and be absorbed by The Mother of The World, as Cairo has been known. Subsequent rulers added on and changed the Citadel, but it is the home of the mosque of Mohamed Ali and the site of some marvelous music concerts in the summer. The music festival sells its tickets for about LE 2 each, well within the reach of working class Egyptians who will hear everything from folk music, to classical Arabic music, to modern Arab jazz while sitting under the stars and looking out over the city.