Khedive Ismail's Paris on the Nile, built in twenty years, neglected for eighty, and slowly being taken seriously again.
Khedive Ismail visited Paris for the Exposition of 1867, watched Haussmann’s boulevards being cut, and came home determined to build the same thing. Between about 1867 and 1882 a new city was laid out on drained ground west of the medieval one — boulevards radiating from circuses, apartment blocks with shops below, gas lighting, and European architects imported to design it.
Ismail said Egypt was no longer part of Africa but part of Europe, and Downtown is what he meant.
He bankrupted the country doing it, which led directly to British financial control, the Urabi revolt and the occupation of 1882.
What to see
Talaat Harb Square is the centre, with the statue of the banker who founded Bank Misr, and Groppi, the once-famous Swiss café, on the corner.
Sherif, Qasr al-Nil, Adly and Emad al-Din streets have the best of the architecture. Look for the passages — glazed shopping arcades cut through blocks, several of which survive and are being restored.
Tahrir Square, at the western end, is the largest and the least attractive, dominated by the Mogamma building and the Egyptian Museum. It is also where the 2011 revolution happened, and where a great deal of subsequent Egyptian politics has been decided. There is now an obelisk and four ram-headed sphinxes brought from Luxor in the middle of it, a redesign that was controversial.
The Ministry of Interior and the surrounding streets remain sensitive; do not photograph government buildings or police.
The revival
Downtown declined badly from the 1960s, as the elite moved to Zamalek, Maadi and later the desert compounds, and the buildings were subdivided and left unmaintained. Rent control froze many tenancies for decades and removed any incentive to repair.
Since around 2010 there has been a slow reversal — Al Ismaelia, a private company, has bought and restored a number of buildings, and there is an arts and café scene in the old flats. The Cairo Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival runs here.
It is not gentrified and much of it is still shabby.
Practicalities
All three metro lines meet in Downtown, which makes it the best-connected part of Cairo.
It is busy, loud and safe. Traffic is constant and crossing the road requires the local technique, which is to walk out steadily and let cars flow around you. Cross with an Egyptian the first few times.
Evening is when the district is at its best — see Downtown after dark.
