A: Admiring Amazing Athletes

A is for Admiring Amazing Athletes

In honor of Egypt’s national football (soccer) team and their recent win in the Africa Cup of Nations, I thought I’d post some photos from the 2006 African Cup that was hosted by Egypt. The Pharaohs won that year, too. In fact, this  is their third consecutive win! The boys in this photo, though, are admiring athletes from other African nations. My husband and I attended a game between Ghana and Senegal, played in the Port Said Stadium.

Learn more about athletes in Egypt in my book and on my website.

Reads news about our champions:

Egypt wins Africa Cup of Nation for Record Third Consecutive Time

Egypt celebrates while Ivory Coast Ponders Future

A: Al Azhar Park

A is for Al Azhar Park

If you haven’t visited Al Azhar Park, I highly recommend taking an afternoon stroll through this gorgeous garden! Every time I have visited, I have been impressed with its upkeep and beauty. But once you learn the history of the park, you’re sure to be even more impressed. Al Azhar Park was built by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on “a 500-year-old mound of rubble in the inner city.”

The entire project includes “the restoration of the 12th Century Ayyubid wall and the rehabilitation of important monuments and landmark buildings in the Historic City. It also encompasses an extensive social development programme, including apprenticeship arrangements, housing rehabilitation, micro-credit and health care facilities.”

Read more about the park here. (I recommend downloading the Project Briefs if you’re interested in the details of the project. )

G: Grilled Chicken

G is for Grilled Chicken

Grilled chicken, or firaakh mashwi, is a popular meal in Egypt. You can order one from street vendors and take it home to eat. Or find a seat at a restaurant, like Andrea’s – where this photo was taken, to enjoy this tasty dish. It’s usually served with bread, salad, and tahina. Andrea’s makes an excellent choice of restaurants if you have visitors to Cairo. Read more about this famous Cairo restaurant here.

B: Batik

B is for Batik

From the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center, where these photos were taken in April of 2009:

“In contrast to weaving, batik requires fast work. Its use of molten wax and phase dying presented a new challenge requiring planning and an altogether different faculty. Those who learned this technique had to be quick of hand and eye. In batik, the cloth is dipped repeatedly into different dyes which range from clear to opaque. Elements of the design which are of the same colour are drawn in wax before dipping the cloth into the next dye. The versatility of batik allows one to make tablecloths, furnishing fabrics and wall pictures. “

E: Egret

This Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) was on the shore along the path from the Blue Hole to Ras Abu Galum, South Sinai. Learn more about egrets here.

T: Tameya

T is for Tasty Tameya!

Tameya is one of the most popular street foods here. You may have heard it referred to as falafel, as it is called in other Middle Eastern nations where it is typically made with chick peas. In Egypt, tameya is made of mashed fava beans and coriander, rolled into balls or small patties and fried. You can eat them plain or in a sandwich on baladi bread with salad and tahina. Sometimes sesame seeds are added to the outside of the patty before frying. The patch in this photo was my lunch last week, purchased around the corner from my house. This is LE 2 (36 cents) worth of tameya – and that is how you order it – by the amount of money you want to spend!

Click to hear the pronunciation of tameya.

C: Creative Commons

More about Creative Commons

If you are looking for free resources, here are a few places to find work (images, video, audio, and other media) released under a Creative Commons license:

Creative Commons.org

http://search.creativecommons.org/

Not a search engine in itself, but by searching from this page you can       access search services of other organizations – Google, Yahoo, Flick, blip.tv, jamendo, SpinXpress, and Wikimedia Commons. You can specify whether you want to use the work commercially and/or if you want to modify the work, but you cannot search by  specific license.

Wikimedia Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Commons hosts images, sound, and video that are either licensed with a CC or GFDL license. Many files are even in the public domain. You can search by topic but not license.

Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/

Images only but if you have an account, you can search by specific CC license, which I find very useful.

Content Directory

http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators

This is a place to find a list of more groups and organizations that provide CC-related services.  Audio, image, video, and text.

Z: Zalamokkat in Zamalek

Another Arabic Audio Post!

Because I haven’t posted one in awhile and because I haven’t posted any “Z” entries yet…here’s how to pronounce Zalamokkat (a nickname for a certain type of Mercedes car) and Zamalek (an island in Greater Cairo).

Click to hear the pronunciation of Zalamokkat.

Click to hear the pronunciation of Zamalek.

P: Palaces

This is part of the palace complex located in Montazah Gardens, Alexandria – El Salamlek Palace, which is now a 5-star hotel. The palace complex was built in 1892 by the last khedive of Egypt.

H: Hats

Time to celebrate! When it’s holiday season, you can purchase these shiny hats from street vendors in Cairo. These particular ones were on sale near the Ma’adi souq (market) two years ago around the time of Eid el Adha.