Best Places to Visit in Khedivial Cairo

Egypt’s historical areas are spread throughout the country, but Cairo has unique quarters. Recently, Egypt announced that it would begin a multi-million-pound project to renovate many landmarks that had long been forgotten or deteriorating. The project will focus on Khedivial Cairo, an area of Cairo with many landmarks dating back to the era when the Khedives ruled Egypt.

Once called the “Paris of the E “st” when Khedive “Smail built it in the 19th century with Parisian architecture, here are some things you should know about Khedivial Cairo:

Who was Khedive Ismail?

Ismail Pasha ruled Egypt in 1863. Many describe him as the “founder of the mod” in Egypt,” specifically “Cairo, as he introduced many modern conveniences to the city. During his reign, the first railroads and trams were installed to help commuters move from Khedivial Cairo to other districts, such as Abbassiya and Masr el Gedida.

Ismail Pasha studied in Paris. He was so impressed by its architecture that he incorporated it into Cairo’s architecture, evident in the streets and buildings in downtown Cairo and some of the designs of his many palaces. 

In 1867, Napoleon III invited Khedive Ismail to attend the Paris World Exhibition, and the Egyptian pavilion managed to draw the attention of its visitors. There, Khedive Ismail met Jean Pierre Barillet Deschamps, the landscape architect who designed Champs de Mars and Bois de Boulogne and who Ismail would later hire. 

He was in a race against time, as there were two years left until the grand opening of the Suez Canal, at which all the world’s leaders were invited to tour Egypt. Ismail wanted to transform Cairo into a European-style city to impress his guests, so he tasked Ali Mubarak Pasha, the head of the Public Works Ministry, with modernizing Cairo just as Georges-Eugène Haussmann was hired to develop Paris.

In 1872, Khedive Ismail opened Mohamed Ali Street, which stretched from El Qala’a Square to Qala’aba Square in Downtown Cairo. In the same year, he inaugurated the 400-meter Qasr El Nile Bridge, which became the first bridge to connect the east and west banks of the Nile. 

Ezbekiyya Gardens

Afterwards, he turned to Azbekiyya Gardens, a pond surrounded by several houses. The pond was backfilled and replaced with a large garden. 

Ismail hired Jean-Pierre Barillet Deschamp, the former chief gardener of the city of Paris, to landscape the city and design several gardens and parks in Egypt, including the twenty-acre Ezbekiyya Gardens. The gardens were developed and decked with exotic trees imported from India, Australia, Cuba, Madagascar, and Brazil. The gardens were lit by 2,500 gas tulip-shaped glasses, an innovation Paris had also acquired. Ezbekiyya Gardens gradually became the central park in Cairo. Egyptians flocked to it to enjoy their days under the shade of stone houses and arcades.

Several European-style cafes were built, where musicians played foreign music to entertain the visitors. Until the 20th century, the gardens hosted many concerts for major Egyptian artists.

The New Cairo

French, Italian, German, and Egyptian architects all worked to develop the city of Cairo, which led to an exciting and unique mix of architectural styles, such as neo-classical, baroque, rococo, Renaissance, and Egyptian. 

Swiss architect Charles Albert Behlar left his mark on more than one city, such as Cairo, Paris, and Jerusalem. Behlar’s creatiBehlar’s can be found in many places, especially hotels, inside and outside Cairo. In 1906, he designed hotels in Luxor and Aswan and bought shares in an old Hotel in Cairo. 

In 1907, Behlar established a European-style district, now called Zamalek. In 1908, he bought an additional plot of land on Gezira Island to expand it, and he built many of the houses and buildings still standing today. He also built El-Gezira Palace for Khedive Ismail in the same district. He also designed many of the streets of downtown Cairo.

Another excellent example of this intermingling of styles can be seen in the 1925 Muhammad Shawarbi Pasha building that was designed by Lebanese-Egyptian architect Habib Ayrout, who was educated in Paris.

One of the best constructions built then was the Cairo Opera House (or the Khedivial Opera House), which opened in 1869. It was designed by the Italian architect Pietro Avoscani, inspired by the design of the Opera La Scala in Italy, and was the first opera house in Africa. It hosted the first opera performance in Egypt during the celebrations of the inauguration of the Suez Canal, but unfortunately, this opera house burned down in 1971.  

Since public entertainment was considered a priority in Khedive Ismail’s new ciIsmail’siro, a circus was built behind the Opera House, next to the Ezbekiyya Gardens, in 1869, according to the designs by German architect Julius Franz and French architect Regis de Curel. However, it was torn down in 1872 and replaced by the neo-classical Mattatias apartment building designed by Ambroise Baudry in 1876. It remained unfinished and was demolished in 1999. A racecourse was also built in the centre of Cairo, but in 1881, the land was sold. 

Another historical building constructed in the neighbourhood and has survived to this day was built in the Mamluk style in 1884 by French engineer and art collector Alphonse Delort de Gléon. In the 1890s, the building contained the Cercle Artistique, which held an annual art exhibition where international and local artists showed their works until it was purchased by the famous art and antiquities dealer Maurice Nahman in 1914, who turned it into his residence and showroom as museum curators came from all over the world to his shop to buy Egyptian, Islamic or Coptic antiques.

The Sabet Palace was replaced by the Savoy Hotel in 1898 and the Baehler buildings in 1934. One of Nubar Pasha’s lavish Pasha’sas was transformed into a hotel until 1914, when it was replaced by the Sednaoui department store designed by French architect Georges Parcq.

After being transferred to a new site in Giza, the French Embassy now occupies the Mamluk-style palace owned by the French Count Gaston de Saint-Maurice. Today, the Embassy boasts an impressive hall with four iwans, a fountain, and carved door panels inlaid with ivory and marble. 

In place of the Maurice Palace, the tallest building in Cairo at the time, The Immobilia, designed by French architect Max Edrei and Italian architect Gaston Rossi, was built. 

One of the last remaining houses from that era is a villa on Shawarbi Street that once stood in the middle of a large garden, right next to Villa Maurice, and had an extension that was dubbed as the ‘Villa Medicis’ u Caire’ because it offered rooms and studio space to visiting painters. It was designed by Ambroise Baudry, commissioned by Baron Alphonse Delort de Gléon in 1872, in the Arab style. In 1908, it was bought by a wealthy landowner, Mohamed Shawarbi Pasha, and then occupied by the Italian Embassy before becoming the headquarters of the political journal al-Siyasa in the 1930s. It is now a trading firm. 

The few other buildings include École des Jeunes Filles Nobles, a school for girls designed in 1872 by Ali Pasha Mubarak and later used by several government ministries, and the massive neo-classical palace of Ismail Saddiq al-Muffatish, built around 1875 on Lazoghli Square and now used as a warehouse by the Ministry of Finance. 

Nearby are the palace and gardens of Khedive Ismail’s mother, Ismail’s al-Ayni, which became Garden City in 1906. 

Cairo continued to develop over the following decades. The private museum and palace of amateur collector Omar Sultan, the brother of feminist Hoda Shaarawi, on Gama’a SharkassGama’at, was built in 1907 in the Islamic revival style. Both buildings were known as Dar al-Mathaf and housed the huge Ancient Egyptian art collection assembled by the young amateur. His sister also lived nearby, in a Mamluk-style house, adjoining another house-museum in the same style on Qasr al-Nil Street belonging to aristocrat Antoine de Zogheb. 

In 1910, Khedive Abbas Helmi II built four residential buildings, dubbed the Khedivial Buildings, on Emad El-Din Street, designed by Italian architect Antonio Lasciac. Emad El-Din Street was one of the longest and oldest streets in Khedivial Cairo and was named after Sheikh Emad El-Din, one of the wealthiest men in Egypt at the time, who used to own a palace on the same street.

These advances made Cairo a new world capital frequented by many foreigners from across the globe, many of whom chose to stay in the country and live side by side with the Egyptians as one diverse community. “It was a time “when the corner grocer was Greek, the mechanic Italian, the confectioner Austrian, the pharmacist English, the hotelier Swiss, and the department store owner Jewish. “

Where to go in Downtown Cairo

Downtown Cairo is a well-known area to many Egyptians for its famous landmarks.

Tahrir Square

The development of Downtown Cairo was said to have begun in Tahrir Square, which was named Khedive Ismail Square. They wanted it to lead to the Qasr al-Nil barracks and Abdeen Palace. Still, the square, whose name was transformed during the reign of King Fouad to Ismailia Square, developed into one of the most important squares of the Egyptian capital, not only because it leads you to 18 ministries or the parliament building, but also because it connects to several main streets that represent a backbone of Cairo, including the roads of Qasr Al-Aini, Al-Galaa, Talaat Harb, Bab Al-Louk, and Ramses. 

Tahrir Square has recently undergone significant developments that saw the whole square renovated. An obelisk and several sphinxes were transported from Luxor to decorate the square that is considered the centre of the city. The surrounding buildings were given a fresh coat of paint and decorated with lights. This was done before the central event in April 2021, when 22 mummies were transported from the Egyptian Museum to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat. The mummies were transferred in a majestic parade through the square before moving to their new home.

Falaki Street

Many do not know who the astronomer who bears the name of the longest street branching from Bab al-Luq Square is, but history says that he is Mahmoud Pasha Hamdi al-Falaki. He is one of Egypt’s brilliaEgypt’ss in engineering and astronomy, one of Ali Pasha Mubarak’s studeMubarak’sthe School of Engineering in Cairo, and the innovator of the annual calendars. Al-Falaki held several prominent positions in several ministries in his time.

Abdeen Square and its Royal Palace

As for Abdeen Square and its royal palace, Abdeen Bey was an emir of the Royal Brigade during the era of Muhammad Ali Pasha. After his death, he lived in a palace bought by Khedive Ismail and transformed into the current palace. The palace witnessed many historical events, such as the Orabi demonstration against Khedive Tawfiq in 1882 and when British tanks besieged King Farouk on 4 February 1942.

The French architect Léon Rousseau designed the palace, costing 700 thousand Egyptian pounds. In comparison, the price of its furniture amounted to two million pounds, and the palace remained the seat of the Egyptian government until the Revolution of July 1952. While the name of the square was changed from Abdeen to El Gomhorya, its first name is stuck in the minds of Egyptians because of its connection to the palace, which was neglected after the Revolution and turned into a centre for malaria vaccination until it was decided to restore it in the 1970s. Now, the palace includes several museums displaying artefacts and possessions that belonged to the last royal family in Egypt, such as rare jewellery, weapons, medals, and much more.

Qasr al-Nil 

Qasr al-Nil was not just a palace or a bridge. Still, it became one of the most important streets of Khedivial Cairo, starting from Tahrir Square and extending across to Talaat Harb and Mostafa Kamel, passing through Sharif, Mohamed Farid, and Emad  El-Din Streets, to end at Opera Square and El Gomhorya Street. The decision to build the street was dictated from Khedive Ismail to the chief engineer of Egypt at the time, Ali Mubarak, to be 1250 meters long and 20 meters wide and contain a group of architecturally distinguished buildings, including the Nasser Social Bank building, which was in the past the headquarters of the Italian Bank. 

Suleiman Pasha Street

Talaat Harb Square and Street is one of the most famous landmarks in the heart of Cairo. Despite the appreciation of all Egyptians to Talaat Harb Pasha, founder of Banque Misr, who became the mainstay of the Egyptian national economy in the 1920s, in the past, the square was named after Suleiman Pasha, the French man who entrusted Muhammad Ali with the task of forming the Egyptian army.

Suleiman Pasha was born in France in 1788, but he announced his conversion to Islam, and Muhammad Ali chose his new name. He also married him to one of the women in his family, from whom he bore his three sons, including his granddaughter Nazli, the wife of King Fouad later.

Suleiman Pasha died in 1860 and was buried in Egypt. In appreciation for his role in supporting Muhammad Ali’s empire, aAli’sue of him was completed in 1872 to be placed in the same place where the statue of Talaat Harb is now. However, it was moved from its place after the Revolution and put in the Military Museum.

Among the names of the streets of Khedivial Cairo comes Merritt Pasha Street, a French-born archaeologist, whose full name is Merritt Auguste François, which starts from Ramses Street and intersects with the streets of Champollion, Qasr al-Nil, and Abdel Salam Aref.

Merritt Pasha’s relatioPasha’sith Egypt began in 1849 when he was appointed to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre Museum in Paris. A year later, he was sent to Egypt to buy Coptic manuscripts. He fell in love with Egyptian antiquities and started excavating them in the Saqqara area. He was responsible for discovering the Apis calf tomb, which contained the coffins of calves.

Hoda Shaarawi Street

Among the many women who became famous in Egypt, Mrs Hoda Shaarawi’s nameShaarawi is to one of the streets of Khedivial Cairo, the street branching from Talaat Harb Street and extending to Sharif and Abdel Salam Aref Streets. The street was previously known as “Sheikh Hamza”, “the shrine o” ner. However, after the July revolution, it was changed to Hoda Shaarawi, the pioneer of the women’s movement, who underwent political struggles since her association with her husband, Ali Pasha Shaarawi, whose name she took after marrying him, and participated with several women, for the first time in the history of Egypt, in the demonstrations of the 1919 revolution. In 1923, she founded the Egyptian Women’s Union, which allowed women to engage in an activity that mixed politics and civil work. In 1935, she was chosen as the International Women’s Union women’s. She died in 1947 at the age of 68.

In Khedive Cairo, streets bore the names of personalities from the royal family, but they were changed after the July Revolution of 1952 to bear other names that express the new era. One example is King Fouad Street, the name of the King of Egypt from 1917 to 1936, which changed to 26 July Street in commemoration of the abdication of the last king of Egypt, King Farouk, on 26 July 1952.

Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat Street

There is also Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat Street, which starts from Ataba Square and crosses several streets: Emad El-Din, Mohamed Farid, Sherif, Talaat Harb, and Champollion, and ends with Ramses Street, which from the beginning bore the name of the famous Egyptian politician, Abdel-Khaleq Tharwat Pasha, then it changed to bear the name of Queen Farida, the first wife of King Farouk, after her marriage to him at the end of 1930s, but it returned to its first name after the Revolution. Ibrahim Pasha Square was named after the son of Muhammad Ali Pasha and the commander of his armies, which, after the Revolution, turned into the Opera Square, now near the Attaba El Khadra Square.

In addition to the former royal streets, there is Tawfiq Street, which bore the name of Khedive Tawfiq, the son of Ismail Pasha. The street’s name cstreet’so Orabi Street, connecting Orabi Square with Ramses Street. 

The streets of Khedivial Cairo bear not only the names of politicians, kings, and economists but also the names of all those who contributed to the advancement of Egypt in all fields, between Naguib El-Rihani Street, the pioneer of comedy, and Dr Antoine Clot Bey, the French doctor who was brought by Muhammad Ali Pasha to teach Egyptians medicine and is considered the pioneer of Egyptian medicine, and others.

Yacoubian’s Building

Alaa Al-Aswany wrote his first novel, “The Yacoubian “building”, which sparked” a lot of controversies before it was turned into a movie. The exciting thing is that the film’s creators filmed that the design of the actual building that bears the name “Yacoubian” on “Last Har” Street in central Cairo does not bear the features described in the novel, so they chose another building near Al-Shorbagy Street. The real Yacoubian Building is located on Talaat Harb Street above the Miami Cinema. It dates back to 1934, when it was founded by the leader of the Armenian community in Egypt at the time, the millionaire Jacob Yacoubian, along with several other buildings, but this was the most famous. It included residents of different religions and races, expressing Egypt’s diversity; after the July 1952 revolution, the ownership of several apartments and buildings in central Cairo was transferred to Egyptians. Over time, rooftop rooms became housing for people experiencing poverty; they were housing for servants in the building, places to wash clothes, or kitchens to prepare banquet food.

Groppi

Groppi is one of the most well-known shops in Cairo and perhaps Egypt. This ice cream shop in Talaat Harb Square was founded in 1909 by the Swiss Groppi family, helmed by the businessman Giacomo Groppi, and owned by them until 1981. The shop was made famous as a meeting spot for lovers and featured in numerous Egyptian films and TV shows, which increased its popularity immensely. To this day, it is frequently used by many Egyptians.

Café Riche

Another renowned downtown landmark is the Café Riche, which opened in 1908 on Talaat Harb Street. The café became a meeting place for intellectuals and revolutionaries, including Egyptian Nobel Prize winner and nationalist novelist Naguib Mahfouz and the then-future president Gamal Abdel Nasser, and witnessed many historically significant events during the 20th century. It is said to be where the perpetrator of the 1919 failed assassination attempt on Egypt’s Prime Minister, Youssef Wahba Pasha, hid in waiting for the opportune moment and where several members of the 1919 revolution met to organize their activities and print their flyers.

Renovating Khedivial Cairo in Modern Day

As part of the country’s plans to develop many parts of Egypt, the Egyptian government has begun a significant project to renovate many of the buildings and streets of Khedivial Cairo.

The initiative began with painting the facades of buildings and shops in the area in one unified colour and unifying the fonts on the store signs. 

The downtown area includes nearly 500 properties, 300 of which have been restored to re-capture the city’s atmosphere of former times, preserve its heritage and history, and promote tourism.

The idea began in 2009 when the Egyptian Ministry of Culture launched a joint cultural project with Spain to develop Khedivial Cairo or the Cairo of Khedive Ismail, who ruled Egypt from 1863 to 1879.

The project is implemented by taking advantage of Spain’s experieSpain’spreserving historical buildings to protect the structures of a distinctive character in the centre of the Egyptian capital, which form a triangle with the head at Tahrir Square and its bases are the Opera and Ramses Squares and the streets that branch from them, comprising 421 beautiful buildings within an area of ​​no Less than 700 acres, dating back to the second half of the 19th century, and the first two decades of the 20th century, and it combines classic and Renaissance styles.

The project also aims to transform the centre of Old Cairo into a tourist and urban area without prejudice to the historical structure of the districts.

On the other hand, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture has completed a plan to illuminate Luxor’s western shores according to the latest international systems so that the coast of the west will be prepared for visitors. This project began to be implemented in cooperation with the American Aid Agency to develop and restore the monuments of the eastern bank of Luxor for 60 million dollars, where the total cost of lighting on the eastern and western mainland reaches 100 million.

Overall, it looks like Egypt has taken a keen interest in developing and preserving its architectural heritage to benefit its visitors and future generations. These generations should be able to enjoy the beautiful historical buildings and locations around the country, specifically in its capital, Cairo.

Take a look at some of our other favourite destinations in Egypt.