Page 101 - June-July23

“THE MINARETS MAY BE CRUMBLING, THE PEOPLE MAY BE STRUGGLING
TO MAKE ENDS MEET AND THE CITY ITSELF MAY BE IN DIRE NEED OF A
FACELIFT BUT DESPITE ALL ELSE, WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE’S A CERTAIN
LIFE TO CAIRO THAT IS UNIQUELY ITS OWN.”

It will take more than a day – may be an entire Heliopolis and, of course, Giza, home to the famous
week – to see every exhibit but among the must-see pyramids. However, it is, perhaps, the Old City, with
attractions here are the Tutankhamen Galleries, its maze-like shopping district and ancient mosques
which display the gold and gem-inlaid funerary that is the most enchanting part of Cairo.
mask and 1,700 other treasures found in the tomb of Here, more than anywhere else in Egypt, you will
the Boy King, and the Royal Mummy Room, which be transported to the Middle Ages, especially as you
contains the corpses of 11 of Egypt’s most powerful walk through the Khan El-Khalili, the central
pharaohs including Seti I and his son Ramses II. shopping bazaar which has remained largely
The figures still have somewhat distinct features unchanged since the 14th century.
and as one stares into the face of kings and queens From polyester bellydancing costumes to
who died some 3,000 years ago it’s difficult not to get souvenirs to essential oils to hieroglyphed papyri,
goose pimples. you name it and an Egyptian salesman in pale blue
Cairo may not be the most beautiful city in the galabeyya will offer it. But more than shopping, with
world – in fact, it is dirty and overpopulated – but winding medieval alleys and more, Khan El-Khalili
it’s charm stems from the fact that it is a product of is a complete experience with teeming roadside food
its history, a history that also lives on in the streets stalls, grand ancient mosques and traditional
of the ‘city of the thousand minarets’. Egyptian music rending the air.
The unique thing about Cairo is that each new Clearly, there’s more to city than pyramids and
ruler – whether Roman, Greek, Persian, French or pharaohs – and bellydancing and Nile cruises
Arabs – rather than destroying what he had thrown in for good measure. The minarets may be
conquered, chose to build a new city upwind from crumbling, the people may be struggling to make
the old. Not surprising then that you have distinctly ends meet and the city itself may be in dire need of a
different parts of the city i.e. Old Cairo, Islamic facelift but despite all else, wherever you go, there’s
Cairo, the colonial downtown, the urban suburb of a certain life to Cairo that is uniquely its own.

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JUNE-JULY 2023 hospitality horizon