Egypt’s new desert capital: metropolis or mirage? - FT.com:
"It may be a harsh and congested city, but the noisy jumble that is Cairo can still offer moments of beauty and pleasure that remind even the most jaded Cairenes of why they love their capital, and why Egyptians call it somewhat grandiloquently Om el Donia or “mother of the world”.
Sailing on a felucca on the broad stretch of Nile in the heart of the city, savouring stillness in the middle of the madness, is one such moment. The European-style buildings of central Cairo may be dilapidated and often obscured by clothes and shoe shops with garish fronts, but they still exude a faded charm, and the observant will see gold mosaic trimming, gargoyles, plaster rosettes, art-deco flutes and art-nouveau wrought-iron flourishes attesting to a time when the architects of the city were Italian and French.
Although there is the option of a speedier journey through the tunnel under Azhar street, I usually choose to drive through the car-choked road between elegant historic mosques and centuries-old markets, dodging pedestrians and quietly cursing pick-up trucks that block the traffic to load up."
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