Our Hall porter Recommends
Cairo has been the
largest city in Africa and the Middle East ever since the Mongols
wasted Imperial Baghdad in 1258. Acknowledged as Umm Dunya or
"Mother of the World" by medieval Arabs, and as Great Cairo by
nineteenth-century Europeans, it remains, as Jan Morris writes in
Destinations, "one of the half-dozen supercapitals – capitals that
are bigger than themselves or their countries … the focus of a whole
culture, an ideology or a historical moment". As Egypt has been a
prize for conquerors from Alexander the Great to Rommel, so Cairo
has been a fulcrum of power in the Arab world from the Crusades unto
the present day. The ulema of its thousand-year-old Al-Azhar Mosque
(for centuries the foremost centre of Islamic intellectual life)
remains the ultimate religious authority for millions of Sunni
Muslims, from Jakarta to Birmingham. Wherever Arabic is spoken,
Cairo's cultural magnetism is felt. Every strand of Egyptian society
knits and unravels in this febrile megalopolis.
Egyptians have two names for the city, one ancient and popular, the
other Islamic and official. The foremost is Masr, meaning both the
capital and the land of Egypt – "Egypt City" – an ur-city that
endlessly renews itself and dominates the nation, an idea rooted in
pharaonic civilization. (For Egyptians abroad, "Masr" refers to
their homeland; within its borders it means the capital.) Whereas
Masr is timeless, the city's other name, Al-Qahira (The Conqueror),
is linked to an event: the Fatimid conquest that made this the
capital of an Islamic empire that embraced modern-day Libya,
Tunisia, Palestine and Syria. The name is rarely used in everyday
speech.
- The Opera House
- The Egyptian Museum
- Pyramids
- Salah El Deen Citadel
- Al-Refa'i Mosque
- Cairo Tower
- Greek monastery in Old Cairo
- Pyramids Sound & Light
- Nile River
- Sphinx
The Opera House
One of the great Opera Houses of the world, a full programme runs throughout the year. The greatest singers, conductors, orchestras and dancers love to perform here. Opened
in 1988, the Opera House complex is a stunning jewel of
postmodernist architecture incorporating Islamic and Pharaonic
motifs. There are two opera halls, one of which is strictly
jacket-and-tie while the other is a little more laid back. The
complex also offers an open-air theatre and an amphitheatre for
summer performances. There is always something going on here,
usually more than one event per night, so it is advisable to
call ahead or check local newspapers for a schedule. Internation...
The Egyptian Museum
The Egyptian government
established the ‘Service des Antiques de l’Egypte’ in 1835
mainly to halt the plundering of archeological sites and to
arrange the exhibition of the collected artifacts owned by the
government. The Azbakian garden in Cairo was first used as a
storage place for these artifacts.The collection was later
transferred to another building in the citadel of Saladin. In
1858, a museum was prepared at Boulaq, its contents collected by
the French archeologist August Mariette. In 1880, the contents
of the Boulaq museum was transferred to an annex of the Giza
palace of Ismail pasha, the ruler of Egypt. The present museum
was built in 1900, in the neo-classical style by the French
architect Marcel Dourgnon. for more info
click here
Pyramids
The twin streams of Egypt's history converge just below the Delta at Cairo, where the greatest city in the Islamic world sprawls across the Nile towards the Pyramids, those supreme monuments of antiquity. Every visitor to Egypt comes here, to reel at the Pyramids' baleful mass and the seething immensity of Cairo, with its bazaars, mosques and Citadel, and extraordinary Antiquities Museum. It's equally impossible not to find yourself carried away by the streetlife, where medieval trades and customs coexist with a modern, cosmopolitan mix of Arab, African and European influences. Both archetypes still resonate and in monumental terms are symbolized by two dramatic landmarks: First one the Pyramids of Giza at the edge of the Western Desert .
Salah El Deen Citadel
This Citadel that rises on The Hill of Al-Moqattam, in one
of the highest areas in Cairo. What a perfect place for a
Citadel! It’s called: Qal’et El-Gabal (Citadel of The
Mountain) or Citadel of Salah El-Deen Al-Ayouby. It’s about
800 years old, but still firm and grand. It dominated the
landscape for many centuries.
It’s too vast to be explored in one day, but we can have a
quick look around. You may like to enter this mosque or
that. Many mosques have been built on it through all these
years. You may also like to enter this museum or that, to
discover the Modern History of Egypt. You must be wondering
at the wonderful weather and the pure air. That’s because
the site that was chosen very carefully.
Al-Refa'i Mosque
It may look like the partner of the Sultan Hassan Mosque next door, but half a century separates their construction dates. The mosque's construction began in 1869, but it was not completed until 1912. It was built in pseudo-Mameluke style and now contains the tombs of Sheikh Ali Rifai, a Sufi holy man. It also contains the tombs of King Fouad, his mother, King Farouk and the last Shah of Iran.
Cairo Tower
Built during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser with
Soviet assistance, this 187m-high slender tower on an island
in the Nile offers spectacular views of Cairo. Its concrete
lattice work with a fluted lotus flower finial is unique,
but makes the tower look somewhat like an elongated rubbish
bin. There is an overpriced restaurant that occasionally
revolves, but its better to skip it altogether in favour of
the roof deck and its fantastic panoramic views. Telescopes
are available.
Greek Monastery in Old Cairo
The image of St George as a Roman soldier mounted on a fine
Arabian horse and spearing a dragon is a familiar one
throughout Old Cairo, where there are two facilities
dedicated to him. Throughout the Christian East, Saint
George is undoubtedly the most popular warrior-saint, and in
the Coptic churches of Cairo there are now more than twenty
relics of the equestrian saint.
The Coptic biography of Saint George does not mention his
flight with and victory over the dragon. Hence, scholars
believe that around the fourteenth century this theme was a
transferal from the biography of St. Theodore Stratelates to
Saint George, though it is also possible that the Copts
adopted this tale from the Western Christians.
Pyramids Sound & Light
The commentary might not impress you, but the dazzling light show and awe-inspiring backdrop of the Sphinx and Pyramids surely will. Three times a night in three different languages, the Sphinx plays the role of storyteller, narrating the history of ancient Egypt. Shows are held in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Arabic. Call ahead to check the time of the performance you want to attend; private viewing times can be arranged. Admission: 44EGP for foreign translation shows. The desert's cold in the evenings, so make sure to carry along something to keep you warm.
Nile River
The Nile is the longest river in the world, stretching north
for approximately 4,000 miles from East Africa to the
Mediterranean. Studies have shown that the River (Iteru,
meaning, simply, River, as the Egyptians called it)
gradually changed its location and size over millions of
years. The Nile flows from the mountains in the south to the
Mediterranean in the north. Egyptians traveling to other
lands would comment on the "wrong" flow of other rivers. For
example, a text of Tuthmosis I in Nubia describes the great
Euphrates river as the "inverted water that goes downstream
in going upstream". Three rivers flowed into the Nile from
the south and thus served as its sources: the Blue Nile, the White Nile and the Arbara.
Sphinx
Of all Egypt's monuments, none is as majestic and haunting as the Great Sphinx. It was named as such by the Greeks, because of its physical similarity to a mythical creature with a lion's body and woman's head who devoured passers-by unable to answer her riddle. Arabs know it as Abu el-Hol (Father of Terror). Carved out of a limestone outcropping in front of the Giza Pyramids, the Sphinx is 50 meters long and 22 meters high. Conventional archaeologists attribute its construction...