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Renovated recently Cairo Tower or Borg el-Qahera is a modest 187 meters and is located on Gezira Island (Zamalak). It may not be one of the highest towers at present but when it was built 40 years ago it was boasted to be the tallest all-concrete structure in the world with no steel frames or columns.

El-Borg is just 45 meters taller than the Great Pyramids of Giza, which stand 15km to the southeast. But what El-Borg lacks in height it sure makes up for in the spectacular panoramic view of the massive city of Cairo. The view from Cairo Tower is unequaled, definitely not to be missed especially at twilight when millions of twinkling lights of the city start coming to life. El-Borg’s working hours are from 9:00a.m to 1:00a.m daily, and the ticket costs around LE 50, although cameras are free, there is an extra cost for video cameras.

From the eastern side most of the medieval quarter can be visible just beyond the Nile Hilton Hotel and the Television Building. Also eastward the city skyline fades out against the cliff face of the Muqattam Hills. Whereas westward the city limits are marked by the desert and the outline of the Giza Pyramids. But it’s the majestically serene Nile flowing below that is the most bewitching, carving its way through Cairo. Through the telescopes available you can get a better and closer look of the entire city.

Built in 1961 under the direction of Naum Chebib, the design is unique as it resembles a lotus flower, which along with papyrus was the most revered plant in Egyptian history. It is made up of 8 million small mosaic lozenges that form its partially open lattice-work tube that slightly fans out at the top. El-Borg is made of granite which was often used in building by the ancient Egyptians. Crowning the Cairo Tower is a revolving restaurant, cafeteria and an outdoor observation deck.

In November 2004 a renovation project was initiated following a series of renovation projects to several monuments in Cairo that have damaged after a moderate earthquake hit Cairo in 1992. A clean improved Cairo Tower now elegantly stands tall over the city. With seven hundred and seventy light bulbs inserted into each space in the lotus-shaped structure, Cairo Tower requires more than one gigavolt each day to light up at night.

Back in the 60s it was President Gamal Abdel Nasser favorite place to dine out with is family. One of its first visitors was Hollywood movie star, Katherine Hepburn, even though the tower had somewhat of a rocky footing back then in Egyptian-American politics. It was actually financed with American funds, but was not exactly what the Americans expected Nasser to do with the money.

El-Borg may not have been famous for its height or flamboyance but it made up for its fame in print thanks to its controversial origin, which resulted in its mention in countless biographies dealing with Nasser’s Egypt. It was first written about in CIA’s Miles Copeland in “A Game of Nations”, where he revealed how the LE 450,000 tower was paid for with American hush money originally meant as a bribe to Egypt’s strongman to be “used for purchasing presidential security accouterments.” Furious at the suggestion anyone thought he could be bought, Nasser decided to use the American taxpayers’ money to send the most blatant of messages back to the US. So he built the Cairo Tower providing a vantage point and a truly breathtaking view over the entire city!

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem

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Egypt Tours

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The Sphinx‘ first words as it stand guarding the Pyramids of Giza. The Giza Necropolis stands on the Giza Plateau, located only a few kilometers south of Cairo, Egypt. The ancient Egyptians called this place imentet, “The West” or kher neter, “The Necropolis”. The Great Pyramid of Giza, the relics of a vanished culture, is the only remaining monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The Pyramids of Giza are generally thought of by foreigners as lying in a remote, desert location, even though they are located in what is now part of the most populous city not only in Egypt but in Africa. In fact, urban development reaches right up to the perimeter of the antiquities site. The ancient sites in the Memphis area, including those at Giza, together with those at Saqqara, Dahshur, Abu Ruwaysh, and Abusir, were collectively declared a World Heritage Site in 1979.

The opening lines to the Sound and Light Show instantly capture the audience, and why shouldn’t they? With the backdrop being the Sphinx and the Pyramids beautifully lite, in the pitch dark, easily make one feel that they have actually been transported back into time.

The Pyramids of Giza were built over the span of three generations - by the Fourth Dynasty Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops), his second reigning son Khafre (Chephren, Kephren), and Menkaure. But it was Khufu who placed Giza forever at the heart of funerary devotion, a city of the dead that dwarfed the cities of the living nearby. Dominating the sandy plateau his pyramid built around 2530 B.C, is the largest of all the pyramids in Egypt.

On its southwest diagonal is the pyramid of his son Khafre. Although it is smaller, they appear from afar to be of the same size, this illusion is due to its steeper angle, and as it is built on higher ground it in fact appears taller. The notion that this was done on purpose to out-do his father’s pyramid is obvious!

Further along the southwest diagonal is the smallest of the three great pyramids, that of Khafre’s son, Menkaure. It is also the most unusual. As it is not entirely limestone the uppermost portions are made of brick. It is also not along the diagonal line that runs through the Great Pyramid and the Second Pyramid, but instead is nearly a hundred meters to the southeast. This error, if an error at all, is of a magnitude not in keeping with the mathematical skill known to have been possessed by the ancient Egyptians.

In the last few years there has been a theory that the three large Pyramids of Giza are actually meant to be in an alignment representing the three “belt” stars in the Orion constellation: Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. This theory is rejected by the majority of Egyptologists, but none the less a point to consider. And while the center of the pyramid does not line up with its larger counterparts, the southeast sides of all three pyramids are in alignment. The sides of all three of the Giza Pyramids were astronomically oriented to be north-south and east-west within a small fraction of a degree.

But who really built the Pyramids? The worker’s cemeteries were discovered in 1990 by archaeologists Zahi Hawass and Mark Lehner. Contrary to some popular belief, the pyramid builders were not slaves or foreigners. Skeletons excavated from the site show that they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh’s supervisors. The most possible assumption the Pyramids were built by tens of thousands of skilled and unskilled laborers who camped near the pyramids and worked for a salary or as a form of paying taxes until the construction was completed.

But graffiti from inside the Giza monuments themselves have long suggested something very different. They were not the Jews as been said, nor were they people from a lost civilization. And they were certainly not from out of space. They were Egyptian and their skeletons were buried on the plateau, and were examined by scholars, doctors and the race of all the people found completely supports that they were Egyptian.

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 workers built the Pyramids at Giza over 80 years. Much of the work probably happened while the River Nile was flooded. The workmen who were involved in building the Great Pyramid were divided into gangs, groups, four groups, and each group had a name, and each group had an overseer. Undeniable evidence to this is graffiti found in places that were not meant to show such as the inscription above Khufu’s burial chamber. The workmen who were involved in building the Great Pyramid wrote the names of the gangs, names like “Friends of Khufu”. Plus there was solid evidence from the facilities that the workers were well fed, with a lot of bakeries found and left over bones of fish and cattle. Building the pyramid was a national project of Egypt because everyone had to participate in building it.

After 5000 years this place of ancient worship still stands with all its glory and awe. Defying the elements of nature and time, to this day they still keep from us many secrets. And as the saying goes, “Man fears Time, but Time fears the Pyramids.”

About the Author:
Gawhara Hanem
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Egypt Tours