Cairo on My Mind

In the country’s capital, ancient Egypt reveals its surprisingly contemporary side.

By Karim Rashid

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For some reason, it’s taken me 44 years to return to my hometown of Cairo. So, along with my mother, I took my wife and sister to witness this phenomenal, exuberant place, where the origins of human civilization are omnipresent. I had a show open at the Townhouse Gallery, run by Canadian William Wells, in the heart of the city’s auto mechanics district on Zamalek Island, cluttered with cafés full of hookahs and brass trays of strong Arabic coffee.

The most spiritual place aside from the pyramids is at al-Azhar mosque. The monumental open courtyard is so Cartesian, with overwhelmingly contemporary Islamic geodesics. Each wing takes you to a different prayer area; it’s such an elegant piece of architecture. We also saw this building, the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, with a facade made up of words from the Quran that transcend text, almost becoming an abstract bas-relief.

We stayed at the Sheraton tower with great views of the Nile. For a real 1970s Sadat European-Arabic Modernist flavour, the place to stay is the Nile Hilton – a bit rundown but authentically swank. Art and engineering is in the Egyptian DNA – you can almost feel the osmosis-like effect of history here. To see Tutankhamun’s solid gold coffin at the Egyptian Museum is to witness an incredible structure that appears to have been designed on another planet.

The eclectic 26th of July Street is stuffed with meat markets, bodegas and bars, all lined with Cairo’s all-night-life. At Cairo Jazz Club, there was no jazz, but live vocals and tabla and rababa instruments played over electro Egyptian tracks. Outside, the Egyptian street food was incredible. I loved having pure cane juice as well as all my favourite local desserts – konafa, basboosa, baklava – prepared in front of me.

In Giza, we stayed at the Mena House Oberoi, amid the pyramids. Located in 40 acres of jasmine-scented gardens, this palatial hotel has played host to heads of state and celebrities. The day of my departure, I visited Cairo’s Magic Land in Media Production City, where all the stage sets and decorations for Egyptian movies are located. This wild place inspired a new sculpture that I just designed called Blobjectory.

Globalove,

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