The Coptic Cemetery

Egypt is a very religious place. It's everywhere you look. My colleagues pray in the staff-room. Security guards pray on the pavements. On Fridays, it's not uncommon to see worshippers spilling out of the mosques and all the way down the streets. People on the subway flick through the Qur'an, as do students on my morning bus. Five times a day, microphones across the country blast the call-to-prayer to remind everyone that it's time to face Mecca and recite their holy excerpts.

This picture shows the Coptic Cemetery in Downtown Cairo. I really should learn more about the Coptic Christians. From what I can gather, Egypt was a Christian society just before the Arabs came and took over. Whilst most people were converted to Islam, some remained Christian and were renamed. In my experience, most Arabs don't really mind what religion you follow, so long as you do actually follow one. Muslims and Christians therefore live quite happily alongside each other out here and it is generally expected that you are either one or the other.

I'm not anything of course, but I won't bore you with that today, and instead leave you with the van window to sum up my opinion on all things religious.

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