El Muiz Street, the Heart of Fatimid Cairo

Last week, i went out with my friend in a journey around the Islamic Monuments in El Muiz Le Din Allah Street in Cairo. It was one of the most interesting days in my life since i really saw Egypt in away i have never seen. This street is really a street of great history and a worth visiting place for the numerous unique and memorable mosques, Wikalas, Sabils, and local markets. El Azhar Mosque was the first place to stop at in our journey. We were really fascinated with the cleverly designed gilded decorations over the marble mihrabs, and the graceful arabesque wooden works ormanemting each corner of the mosque. It is really a good example for the Islamic Style of decoration especially in the ornate huge ribbed dome surmounting the ceiling and the minarets with unique Ottoman style of decoration and beautiful stalactites over it. interestingly, El Azhar Mosque is annexed to a library where one can find valuable books that really help those who prefer reading more about Islam and prophetic instructions.
El Ghuri Complex is the second place we visited where we stayed for a while to have a look at the finely ornamented staind glass windows and graceful copper chandeliers hanging down from the ceiling. In spite of the unique style of decoration and the great historic and religious value, the mosque of El Ghuri is in need of more attention. While moving from the Mosque of El Ghuri to its Wikala or commercial center, we enjoyed talking with some kind and friendly merchants in this area. El Ghureya is renowned for being one of the famous cultural centers in Cairo where numerous performances are displayed each saturday night and attended by numerous people whether Egyptians or foreigners. Worth note in the Wikala of El Ghuri are the ornate Mashrabeya windows imparting from the upper floors of the building over the centeral courtyard.
While walking around El Muiz St, we found numerous places of great history and magnificently decorated facades including Sabil Mohamed Ali, and Wikalet Nafisa El Beida. In our way to El Khayameya or the tent making market, we passed by El Muayyad Sheikh Mosque with its finely decorated twin Minarets over Bab Zuweila. The beauty of the interior of the mosque is highlighted by the domed ablution centering its arcaded open courtyard and the white marble Dikka in the Qibla aisle of the mosque. In one of the sides of the Qibla aisle, we found a wooden door with attractive star patterns leading to the mausoleum where Emir El Muayyad Sheikh and one of his sons is buried. This mausoleum with its gracefully designed dome was the last thing to see withing El Muayyad Mosque before going upstairs to have a look over El Muiz street from the top of the Minarets of the mosque over Bab Zuweila. That was unrivaled joy since we managed to see Saladin Citadel and the small alleys of El Darb El Ahmar District with its small workshops of historic handmade crafts.
From Bab Zuweila, we directed to the famous covered market in Cairo renowned for being the center for manufacturing the cover of El Kabaa in Mecca every year for a long period throughout history. Nowadays, El Khayameya is a narrow district with shops on its either sides displaying brightly colored handmade works with attractive pharonic, Islamic, and potanical paintings. All of us welcomed buying attractive cushion covers and wall hangings from this market for its high quality and affordable prices.
These were the only places we managed to visit in our one-day journey in El Muiz Street and there are still alot to see in the heart of Fatimid Cairo

Horses Charm

Though the golden era of horses may be in the past, they are still widely admired for being highly sensitive, intelligent and elegant animals. These hoofed creatures are credited to playing a crucial rule in the history of man.
Numerous studies have been performed for identifying the advanced senses of horses including vision, smell, hearing and tasting that is quite superior to those of man. Worth mentioning about horses vision ability is that they have something that resembles Red-green color blindness for humans that make the horse see red and related colors appear more green. In spite of that horses have a great sense of taste that helps them in determining the best kind of food and in avoiding eating poisonous food. As prey animals, their smell and hearing senses are highly advanced, but their hearing is much stronger than smell. Additionally, horses have an excellent proproctive ability that enable them of being aware of the state of body and limbs all the time. Horses react directly if any human or insect touched its skin especially in the areas around the eyes and the ear.
About horses Intelligence and learning skills, many recent studies prove that they excel other mammals in their abstract thinking abilities. They succeed in learning from both positive and passive reinforcement. Moreover, researchers assure that horses learn faster when using constant techniques are used for training with them. Most of the trainers assure that the relation between the horse and the trainer helps the horse in learning faster and also that domestic horses find lesser difficulties in gaining such skills.