The nightmare of Cairo … is a dream you’ll never forget
Teeming with millions of noisy locals and narrow streets jammed with air-polluting ramshackle cars and buses; Cairo has all the ingredients for being a place to avoid at all costs. Combine it, though with a history dating back to the 26th century BC, the pyramids and the Great Sphinx; the result is truly intoxicating. The course of the River Nile flows smoothly through the city and so does the course of the love that you’ll form with this fabulously individual city. You’ll soon appreciate why Cairo is known as Umm ad Dunya – Mother of The World.
Accommodating Cairo’s visitors
Corporate, business and leisure guests are accommodated in a kaleidoscopic selection of hostels, guest houses, self-catering apartments and hotels. These range from budget to the finest that five stars can buy. Throughout this vast city, which has an estimated population of 22-million people, there are plenty of accommodation solutions. It all comes down to the visitor’s preferred area. Downtown is where it’s all happening and where you can immerse yourself in local life, Cairo-style. There’s not a great deal happening in the pleasant Heliopolis district, but it is close to the International Airport. Up and coming areas are to the east of the city, known as New Cairo. Similarly, the Giza region to the west also has many branded hotels with superior accommodation choices and rarely matched facilities for leisure and business visitors. In Garden City, there’s a resort-type atmosphere which is far removed from the constant delirium of the city centre. Traditional seaside vacations and a complete divorce from the goings-on in Cairo are a couple of hours away in resorts such as Ain Sukhna. Everything you could wish for is close- by, or here, in Cairo, itself.
Digesting all that Cairo has to offer
This is a very cosmopolitan city with restaurants and dining choices that appeal to every conceivable taste. Many hotels have menus that include dishes you know and love; but there are further choices that are spiced with local and traditional Cairo favourites, designed to tickle the taste buds even further. If you fancy a pizza, try the Egyptian version, Fiteer Baladi. Hamam Mahshi is a pigeon-based dish and the more famous Egyptian favourites include Kabab and Kofta. Rice, macaroni and onions are components of the poor man’s Koshary. Desserts include Baklava, Basboosa and Knafa. The latter has a hay-like appearance but is really filo dough, lusciously filled with nuts. Um Ali is a delicious bread pudding. While these and other specialities are to be found on restaurant and hotel menus, they can also be purchased from bakeries in Cairo. So, you can munch on them as you wander round the city’s staggeringly impressive and historic features.
You’ll never say that there was nothing to see in Cairo
Cairo is the largest city in Africa and within the area of its boundaries there are two islands that are created by the mind-blowing River Nile. Then, prepare to be transfixed again, but in a different way, by the city’s approximately five-million cars, most of which appear to be on the streets at the same time. You really must visit the King Tutankhamen artefacts at the huge Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square and the Cairo Tower in the Zamalek area of Gezira Island provides the experience of once in a lifetime views of the city. Then, there is everyone’s highlight at Giza and those legendary pyramids. If preferred, there are hotels and other accommodation options in the Giza area if the pyramids are the prime reason for your visit. Yes, pyramid excursions can include optional desert camel rides and – if you really must – feel free to hum tunes from The Desert Song as you mount your camel and thrill to yet another adventure as part of your Cairo experience.
Football-crazy Cairo scores winning goals
Known in Arabic as al-Qahirah, meaning The Conqueror; today’s visitors are certainly won over by Cairo’s inspiring appeal. The city caters for the needs of today’s hotel-staying visitor, while, at the same time, relentlessly clinging on to essential elements of its past. That’s what makes it unique. Powered with enthusiasm, there’s a quite shocking note in that the electrics are run at 220 volts and on a two-pin system. Maybe, round about the same time that the electrics were introduced; in 969, the city was formed by Tunisia based Fatimid Caliphate. The only pyramids in the world are here in Egypt and close to Cairo. The city’s al-Azhar University is reputedly one of the oldest on the planet and in this truly unique country; Friday and Saturday form the weekend; with Sunday being the new week’s first working day. The unusual is quite normal in Cairo where the rivalry between the two football clubs - al-Ahly and Zamalek – is always at football fever pitch. The flames are wafted further by the fact that they share the same stadium. There’s nothing monotonous about life here in Cairo.