Whirling Dervishes or Men in Skirts

Last night, we headed back to Islamic Cairo to Wikala al-Ghari, a former palace, to watch the Sufi dancers or Whirling Dervishes. The Sufis are a religous sect that began in Turkey in the 13th century. This group extolled music and dancing in order to shed their earthly ties to connect with God's love. Through whirling, the dancers symbolize the heavenly bodies and the dance allows the Sufis to attain a union with God as the dancers give everything of themselves through nonestop whirling.

Whirl, whirl, whirl!

This Dervish whirled nonstop for over 30 minutes.

This group were not Sufis, but rather a troop of musicians and dancers who put on these cultural shows three nights a week at the Wikala. The show is sponsored by the government and is free to the public. As there are less than two hundred tickets available for each performance, we arrived early and just barely made it in to have a front row seat (but on the floor). What  a great show! Two hours of drumming, chanting, and whirling. The crowd, a mix of locals and toursits, enthusiastically appreciated the performance. After a short taxi right back to our neighborhood, our Arabic is improving by the day, we enjoyed a late night supper of roast chicken, kabobs, and kofta (a mincedmeat flavored with onions and spices and grilled on a skewer).

Three Dervishes are always better than one.

Tomorrow: The Best 15 Cent Nile Cruise You'll Find