A trip to Egypt: Cairo

 Nine from Cairo, in their carriers

 Cairo: a street, oil on card, 10 x 12 cm  SOLD

 Cairo is a fine messy polluted annoying place  for painting. There is a good range of different styles of buildings and the sense of being somewhere that matters.

I painted in various places: I worked from hotels, I visited the pyramids in Giza across the river, and I looked at churches and mosques from the Citadel area and from the Coptic neighbourhood.

 Cairo- from Ismaili House Hotel, oil on card, 15 x 12 cm  SOLD

This hotel had splendid views. I stayed there on the first night, it is behind Tahir square. But it is fillthy, so I moved to another, the splendid Victoria Hotel, where the manager kindly permitted me to work from the roof.

 Cairo, apartments,  painted from the Victoria Hotel, oil on card, 12.5 x 14 cm  SOLD

 From the Victoria Hotel, Cairo, oil on card, 11 x 14 cm  SOLD

Above is my hotel window, and below is the view at night.

 Nocturne, Cairo, 8 x 10 cm, oil on card

Cairo, blocks, from the roof of the Victoria hotel, oil on card, 10.5 x 14.5 cm  SOLD

Cairo- a view from the roof of the Victoria Hotel, oil on card, 12 x 8 cm  SOLD

I visited the pyramids: the light shifting across them is a wonderful thing to watch. I want to return.

Pyramids, and the city.oil on card, 12.5 x 14 cm

A pyramid, Giza, oil on card, 14 x 11 cm  SOLD

I saw the Coptic Cathedral and churches:

Cairo, Coptic Cathedral, oil on card, 10 x 14 cm  SOLD

Cairo- little Coptic church near the press agency, oil on card,  12 x 8.5 cm

And I painted mosques in and around the Citadel:

 Cairo, inside a Mosque, oil on card, 14 x 14 cm  SOLD

 Cairo, Mosque, oil on card, 11.5 x 13.5 cm  SOLD

Mosque painted from the Citadel, Cairo, oil on card, 12.5 x 9 cm  SOLD

Finally, here is Cairo from the parking area below the citadel:

Cairo- a view from the Citadel, looking south, oil on card, 16 x 11 cm  SOLD

And here, to end, is the Nile:

Cairo, the Nile, oil on card, 11 x 15 cm  SOLD

I spent a week in Cairo, but one could spend a lifetime. it isn't an easy city- it`s polluted and messy and very noisy.

 But it is extremely interesting, and it is cheap to visit now, given that Egypt`s years of political crisis have devastated the tourist industry.  So I regret that I didn`t have time to do more than scrape the surface.