Mystery Field Trip

If you recall, a few weeks ago I was supposed to go to Bayn al-Qasrayn on a field trip, but it did not happen. I had speculated that it had something to do with the Khan al-Khalili bombing- it didn't. The organization that is in charge of the old buildings in Cairo has not innaugerated the area, yet, so we are unable to go inside for the time being. We went somewhere else instead that we had not yet studied. As far as I know, we still have not studied the buildings we went to, but as Bill O'Reilly would say, WE'll DO IT LIVE! I'LL WRITE IT AND WE'LL DO IT LIVE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tJjNVVwRCY warning: explicit language)!!

Wherever it is we went, it was next to the Citadel:

Entrance to Mystery Building #1:


I believe Mystery Building #1 was a multi-purpose building and among its uses was as a school. Where as most schools at the time would teach just one of the Islamic schools of thought, this one taught all four major schools. Each school had its own entrance in this courtyard:

One of the entrances:
The school also had dorms for its students. This is in the courtyard-like area that is surrounded by the dorms:

Hallway by the dorm rooms:
Mystery Building #1 was also a mausoleum. This is an entrance to one of the crypts:
The mahrab is Mystery Building #1:

Mystery building #2
I do not remember much about this building..
The script at the top right goes all the way across the front of the building:

I think there was some significance to the windows..
The building was surrounded by rubble:
Toward the end, I had a sneaking suspicion that the professor was just trying to kill time and walk down the street, looking at various mosques.
Mystery Building #3 (I think):

Mystery Building #4:
A look down the street from Mystery Building #4:

We continued walking down the street and I realized we were close to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Jesssica and I thought it would be funny if we ended up going in that mosque we went into on accident when we tried to go to the Mosque of Ibn Tulun. Then we did:

The tomb of whoever's mausoleum/mosque this is:

After this building, we went to another place. I took pictures, but I cannot seem to find them on my memory card. It was a hang out spot for Sufi Muslims back in the day. It is normally closed off to the public, but we were allowed to go in. We just had to find the person with the key. A shop owner told the professor where that key-holding person lived (across the street from the Sufi hang out). One of the students began to shout, hoping that the key holder would hear through an open window and come down. That did not happen, so the student went in to the apartment complex and came out a few minutes later with the key. That is how it's done in Egypt. I hope to find the pictures, it was probably the building that I remember most about!

That it for that field trip. Thanks again for reading and we will leave you with Sting and a cut off his new album..