GARDEN CITY : A Retrospective, August 6, 1998. Garden City seen from the air 1999. Photo Donat Agosti below: 1965 photo taken from Cairo Tower Garden City was born in 1905 when Frantz Sofio, Charles Bacos and George Maksud, all three owners of the Nile Land & Agricultural Company, asked agricultural engineer Jose Lamba to create Cairo's newest district. The new township would replace the former royal domains of Kasr al-Aaly (High Palace built for Khedive Ismail's mother) and the two older sarays to the north belonging to Viceroy Ibrahim Pasha.
The entire area had been reclaimed during Mohammed Ali's reign when the surrounding swamps and sandy mounds of Tal al-Akareb (Scorpions Hill) were transformed into orchards and bean fields. Although we ignore the sums paid by the Nile Land & Agricultural Company for Kasr al-Aaly and its 50 acre park the annals of this particular property illustrates the almost phenomenal rise in the price of land during 1903-5.
Cairo's newest khedivial neighborhood occupied a well-defined hexagon. مصر. القوانين. Islamic Art Network - Creswell Exhibition. Islamic Art Network - Comité Bulletins. The Bulletins of the Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe Published online in association with the Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSC) in the American University of Cairo Historical Background Language of the Comité Bulletins Note on the Numbering System used by the Comité for the Monuments Comments on the Comité Bulletins Online Historical Background In December 1881 the Khedive Tawfiq established a committee responsible for the preservation of Islamic and Coptic monuments in Egypt.
As a body within the Ministry of Awqaf (charitable endowments) it was an Egyptian institution, although also known by its French title, Comité de Conservation des Monuments de l’Art Arabe. The Comité was composed of two sub-committees, each with a specific role. The task of the First Commission was to provide a complete inventory of every Islamic or Coptic monument in Egypt, and to specify those monuments most urgently in need of attention. Language of the Comité Bulletins. Cairobserver. Cairobserver. Cairo Sound City. There was an interesting article in the New York Times yesterday about noise and the city of Cairo.
[Image: Cairo, photographed by Nick Leonard]. "We’re not just talking typical city noise," the article says, "but what scientists here say is more like living inside a factory. " This is not like London or New York, or even Tehran, another car-clogged Middle Eastern capital. It is literally like living day in and day out with a lawn mower running next to your head, according to scientists with the National Research Center. [Image: Cairo, as featured on an old postcard, originally uploaded by Flickr user ptrosss]. But this also reminds me of two things. (Thanks, Nicky!) Cairo. المسالك::القاهرة الفاطمية. Cairo from Below القاهرة من الأساس.