It is a curiosity, in stark contrast with the upscale metropolis of posh hotels and casinos in “new Cairo.” The narrow, unpaved streets of the City of the Dead wind between the tombs and family mausoleums along a 4 mile long Islamic necropolis. At the base Egypt’s Mokattam Mountain, located about 3 miles from Cairo’s lively downtown, the “City of the Dead ” is an ancient collection of pantheons, family …
The winner, besting 1,557 competitors from 82 countries, was the Irish firm Heneghan Peng Architects who was tasked to create the world’s most impressive, ethically responsible and sustainable museum in order to house, display and preserve tens of thousands of ancient Egyptian treasures. Twenty years in the making, it is now complete. The $1 billion project comprises nearly half a million square feet of exhibition halls housing 100,000 objects. The …
At first my jet-lagged brain could not process more than their looming yet beautiful presence, and proximity to the nearby town. I had imagined them constructed in the middle of some vast, remote, practically inaccessible stretch of desert wasteland…as is over 90 percent of the remaining country. But they were here in all their significant historical splendor. All three! The most famous, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest …