A well written traveling blog with some nice professional quality pictures of Cairo and surrounding areas.
The taxi dropped us off at al-Azhar park, right near al-Azhar university, at what turned out to be a gorgeous, pay-to-enter park. Apparently, the park was built by the Agha Khan and it must be the nicest place in this whole city. It’s on a hill overlooking the whole city, near the citadel, and is full of trees, lakes, well manicured grass, and paths. It’s really beautiful, but so oddly perfect that it suddenly seemed like we were in a country club in the middle of Cairo.
Ismailimail 
Here is an other View of Al-Azhar Park By Ayesha Harji
Another highlight so far was the Al-Ahzar park. As Ismailis, we have always read about this park in the various Aga Khan Foundation literatures, but to finally get to see this park was amazing. Once you enter the gates, you realize that this park is like a haven of tranquility in the middle of a bustling city. All the outside world is blocked out and you feel calm and rejuvenated. The Park is indescribably beautiful; there are fountains flowing, beautiful shrubs growing, and calligraphic touches to every aspect of the park. While on the one hand, I feel that this is a truly wonderful accomplishment for the Ismaili community, I feel that on the other hand, there is still a lot that needs to be done. First off, locating the park was very difficult. Almost every Egyptian we talked to had no idea about the park, or its location. We happened upon it by chance, although we were looking for it in a different area, and were lucky that dad’s sharp eyes even noticed it, or we would have just kept driving. As well, even within the park, the different projects that the AKF is running – the work project, the restoration project etc. are not publicized. I think that if people knew more about the reasoning behind this project or the different types of things that the Aga Khan Foundation does here, it would be ten times more beneficial…. Just some advertising changes would make a big difference. Al-Ahzar mosque was also beautiful, with its original minarets still in place. These minarets are somewhere around 1500 years old! Of course, as with every service that is offered in this city, the man who led us into the entryway of the mosque and then disappeared wanted a tip, or baksheesh. In other instances, for helping me cross the street, a guy wanted money. For opening a door, people want money. Every step of the way, there is someone there who has their hand open expecting payment for any small help they offer you.
Read her complete report at,
http://www.dewani.ca/mh/index.html
http://www.dewani.ca/mh/TravelLog/index.html
http://www.dewani.ca/mh/mhexpdphotos.htm
http://www.dewani.ca/mh/MHpics/mhslideshow.html
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Dear Muslim Harji, thank you for sharing this account.
Regards.
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