Cairo Calling
An Autumn trip to Cairo and Luxor, our first visit to Egypt. A late arrival at 2am meant a leisurely start to our first day enjoying the warm sunshine beside the hotel pool. The view from the 8th floor wasn’t too bad either.
By early afternoon it was time to venture out on foot into the chaos and mayhem that is central Cairo. We made our way north to Tahir Square and the Egyptian Museum, nervously slaloming through the traffic - there are no pedestrian crossings in the city. The new, huge Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza wasn’t yet open so many of the antiquities were still housed here. It was a chaotic jumble of exhibits with little context or explanation but quite charming all the same, a bit like a British provincial museum from the 1980’s.
After an enjoyable couple of hours we headed into the heart of the city for some food and drink. I am indebted to Jon and Patrick Davis for their guide to the historic watering holes in old Cairo. It’s a muslim country but, with around 10% of the population Christian, there exists licensed bars that tend to be hidden on rooftops or inside inauspicious looking buildings. First stop was the wonderful Greek Club where, for 30p, one can become a member for the day and enjoy a cool Stella or two in their rather grand, panelled dining room. The food we ordered took forever to arrive so we sank a few more beers than planned. Egyptian service is unfailingly polite, but can be frustratingly slow.
Suitably fortified we wandered up the road and into the hectic early evening meleé, like an oriental Oxford St at Christmas. We were heading to Cinema Radio, a lovingly-restored art deco cinema and event space. It was an impressive and mellow area with some appealing restaurants, an English language bookshop and coffee shop, we’d return back here later in the trip. Wandering through the space we ended up in a back-alley that felt more Bangkok than Cairo - people on low stools chatting, smoking, playing cards with food vendors wandering around and open shop fronts with little evident trade. It was dark by now which leant a sultry, evocative feel - London suddenly seemed a long way away. We were heading a famous Cairo eatery, Abou Tarek, to try their renown Koshary, a carb-heavy concoction of pasta, rice, chickpeas and and a spicy tomato sauce. It was tastier than it sounds (and looks) and coupled with a bread pot of lentil soup we were well fed for the princely sum of EP245.(£4). I had one last stop for the night and it was a great one - El Horreya Cafe is something of a Cairo institution unchanged since the mid 1950’s and boasting the cheapest beer in Cairo at just over £1 for a 500ml bottle. A wonderful throwback to a forgotten era, i could have stayed all night.
The Garden City area of the city, home of our hotel (and the British Embassy) is a little quieter and less frenetic than most of Cairo. The next morning we took breakfast at the Falouk Book Cafe in a dusty, atmospheric old mansion. The breakfast was poor but it was a pleasant area to wander around with some intriguing dilapidated old mansions - who lives in a house like this?
Cairo is a city of 24 million people and it feels like most are in their cars at any one time. There is a metro, a single line linking New Cairo, the old city and the twin city of Giza. We walked north up to Tahir Square and took the train a few stops south to Coptic Cairo. This is the historic Christian (Orthodox) centre of the city dating back to the Byzantine era. The ancient synagogue was shut but we spent a pleasant morning visiting the Hanging Church, St George’s Church and the Coptic Museum. History is everywhere in Cairo, the various religions happily co-existed for hundreds of years. We wandered back to the hotel from the south, the street markets were in full cry by early afternoon.
Lunch was taken by the hotel pool whilst we saw off the heat of the day (it was 32-34degC at midday) but later in the afternoon we took a taxi eastwards across the city to Al Azhar Park, a green oasis with great views over the city with it’s forest-scape of satellite dishes and dishevelled buildings in all manner of repair. There was a great cafe here to enjoy the sunset and a refreshing hibiscus granita. The taxi ride back took us through the ancient heart of Cairo, past the huge Mosque and along ancient streets with scenes seemingly unchanged in a hundred years.
The Ritz Carlton Hotel has a prime location with a terrace overlooking the Nile. Alas, their sundowners were overpriced and underwhelming - should have gone back to El Horreya. Better was the dinner we had at nearby Oldish with it’s pretty outdoor courtyard. A hectic 20 min walk took us to our first roofbar at the Carlton Hotel, a dusty 3-star affair. The rickety old lift led us up to a lovely 70’s era bar area with pool table, the outside space was a little more functional but the beer was cold and reasonable value at around £3.50 per bottle.
No trip to Cairo can be complete without a trip to the Pyramids at Giza, a 30 minute (on a good day) taxi ride from our hotel. I’d pre-booked a taxi and guide for a half day trip, great value at £30, entry to the Pyramids site is another £8pp. Nothing can quite prepare you for the first sight of the pyramids rising out of the desert on the edge of the city - their sheer mass and weight of history. Our guide Asamma was equally fascinating, a single mum speaking several European languages, she was great company and brought the Pharonic world to life. We mooched around the site, observing the pyramids from afar, up close, and atop a camel. It was busy, and became more so as the morning progressed - get there early of you can. We avoided the market stalls around the site, and the side trips offered to various outlets - you can pick up any souvenirs better and cheaper in Cairo.
Once back at the hotel and suitably restored it was tine to tick off another box in our Cairo bingo card, a sunset felucca trip on the Nile. The hotel concierge took us down the road (and across 6 lanes of traffic) to the wonderfully named docdoc, a small pier below the Four Seasons hotel. £8 secured us a private boat for an hour, there was enough breeze to fill the sails and the view of the cityscape from the Nile was impressive. All was calm, or as calm as it ever gets in the madcap city.
Once more into the breach, our evening entertainment was to be a tour of Zamalek, an upmarket area to the west of old city. First stop was another rooftop bar, Rooftop Zamalek, this one was a classic of the genre. On the 8th floor of an old hotel, a charmingly distressed space complete with beer bottle chandaliers, mismatch furniture and antique wall murals. The beer was cheap, cold and the view back over the city simply stunning. I’d read about a restaurant nearby specialising in contemporary takes on Egyptian street food, Zooba. Their shwarma and Taameya (chick-pea felaffel) were excellent, service was quick and the price reasonable at under £10 inc (soft) drinks. Zamalek was providng to be something of a hit. Next stop was a quick browse around Retrograde Records, a vintage vinyl shop but with a selection of old movie posters and t-shirts. Our final venue was Pub 28, an ‘English-Style’ pub which looked and felt very much like an 80’s wine bar - dark wood, low ceilings and textured walls. It was packed and smoky, we stayed for a beer and called it a day.
Our last full day in Cairo began with an early morning trip to the stunning and serene Ibn Tulum mosque, Cairo’s first, dating back to the 9th century. We had the place to ourselves for over an hour, wandering through the stucco arcades and up into the minaret towers. From here it’s a short taxi ride over to the Citadel, the original city fortifications built to repel the crusaders. The Citadel mosque here is worth visiting, a much more ornate, gilded style reminiscent of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The National Military museum is on the same site, several rooms of variable quality, some completely empty but the space given over to their recent history were more informative. The room documenting the Suez crisis (or victory, from Egypt’s perspective) was particularly interesting. Next stop was the sprawling, chaotic Khan el-Khalili souk. It was busy and hot, we soon got lost and found ourselves in the backstreets amongst the soon-to-be slaughtered chickens and goats, way off the tourist trail. We found our way out eventually and headed back to relative calm of the Garden City.
We headed back to Zamalek for our last night in Cairo. I had details of an upmarket rooftop bar and restaurant, Crimson. It was decent - a slick interior with great views over the Nile but it somehow lacked the charm of it’s more boho neighbours and the European menu didn’t really inspire. Instead we headed over to another basement bar, The Cairo Cellar. It’s an ok venue, quiet when we visited but a little soulless. In the same building was a well-rated restaurant, La Terrace. It was a bright, airy space, reasonably-priced and their chicken tikka curry was very tasty. We wandered back through the leafy, quiet streets with it’s shuttered villas and seemingly abandoned cars. With a 5am start the following day we headed back to the hotel to pack up for a 2-day detour to Luxor.
Luxor is approx 400km south of Cairo on the banks of the Nile, a 10-hour bus ride or 1 hour, expensive (£250pp) flight. The change of pace is immediately apparent on arrival, it’s a city of 1m people but feels more like a provincial town. We headed first to the impressive Luxor Temple, a colonnaded site with monumental statues of the Pharoes guarding the entrance and the 2km long Avenue of Sphinxes leading north to the temple complex at Karnak. This vast estate features more of the same but with the scale and quantity of the antiquity dialled up to eleven - monumental arched colonnades and towering statues reveal themselves as we progressed through the site. It was hot in Luxor with temperatures in the hight 30’s so by mid afternoon we hit the hotel pool serenely situated on the banks of the Nile and enjoyed a cool Sakhara beer and a stunning sunset over the west bank and the Valley of the Kings.
That night we headed back over the river to the atmospheric Marsam Hotel. This was once the headquarters of the Chicago University Archeology Department, responsible for the discovery of many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. It’s been meticulously restored to retain it’s original charm, along with an organic restaurant and kitchen garden. The food and setting cannot be faulted, it’s totally charming so go (and stay) if you can but note it’s quite a remote spot, 20km from downtown Luxor.
It was back to The Valley of the Kings the next morning, we’d booked a driver for half a day (£27) to take us over the river and between the various sites. According the Egyptian mythology, temples of worship are built in the east, where the sun rises, and places of repose in the west so a day of tombs awaited. First up was the awe-inspiring Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut built into the cliffs of the valley. The scale and ingenuity of the complex, on three levels, is quite breathtaking and visiting before the coach parties from the Red Sea resorts allowed us to enjoy it in relative peace.
The Valley of Kings is justifiably famous the world over, a complex of over 20 subterranean tombs including those of Ramses and Tutenkamun in a hot and dusty valley. You can buy tickets (£8pp) to visit any 3 of the tombs (notable are Ramses 3, 4 & 9), or pay considerably extra (£35!) to also visit Rameses 5 & 6. All are spectacular, but busy, hot and humid - visit early or late in the day to avoid the worst of the queues. You enter the chamber via narrow passageway, decorated by hieroglyphs which opens out to a central chamber containing the tomb with more ornate and detailed decoration. It’s extraordinary to contemplate that these tombs have been here for 4000 years, or that they were only discovered less than 100 years ago. One final stop was the site was the Colossi of Memmon, two huge statues guarding the site of another temple.
Our time in Luxor, and Egypt was drawing to a close. We headed back to freshen up and pack for the return to Cairo. We had time to visit the Luxor Museum, a smaller, modern affair with some interesting displays. Pretty soon we were back in crazy Cairo. The plan was to head back out to El Horreya for a couple of farewell Stella but time was against us. Instead we hit the Jazz Bar at the hotel for a couple of quite decent glasses of local wine (£4 per glass) and reflected on our journey. For lovers of history and ancient civilizations, Egypt is a must-visit destination and justifiably so. Perhaps more surprising was how enjoyable a city Cairo proved to be - without doubt it’s noisy, dirty and chaotic but also charming, friendly and atmospheric. I hope to get back again soon, there’s plenty more rooftop bars there to enjoy..
