During the period between 1860 and 1940, Downtown Cairo witnessed a major building boom that gave

birth to a unique architecture combining European styles with local influences and materials. Founded in 640 A.D, Cairo, the capital of Egypt, has a history that extends over two millennia. Established since the Fatimid era, Islamic Medieval Cairo, which is the oldest quarters of the city, is now declared as part of the world heritage. Yet, Cairo offers a vast array of architectural styles besides the Islamic one that remain poorly documented. Despite the legislation protecting these buildings from demolition andalterations, the public awareness to nineteenth and twentieth century architecture is still not fully formed and certainly maintenance laws were not respected. Moreover, the Egyptian government has imposed some of the most st.ringent rent control laws in the developing world and their effects have been devastating. Consequently, Cairo's owners discontinued any investment in maintenance and the responsibility fell upon the tenants. Certainly, historic buildings suffered tremendously on average from a hundred years of neglect. This is the case of the Downtown area of Cairo, our area of interest, developed in the latter part of the nineteenth century extending to the first half of the nineteenth century. During the period between 1860 and 1940 in particular, a unique architecture combining European styles with local influences and materials was born. Post-I940 architecture unfortunately lost any sense of uniqueness as the international style predominated the architectural scene.

Down Town. . Urban Attraction and Architecture

Khedive Ismail directed his attention to Cairo by making it similar to Europe s biggest cities. Hence, it became a replica of Paris, Rome and Madrid

Down Town is meant to be Cairo that was built by Khedive Ismail (1863-1879). The attention of the Khedive was directed towards making Cairo a resemblance of Europe s biggest cities.

He paved streets and long roads and established buildings, gardens and fountains in the French style. He built complete districts; such as Abdeen and Opera and established a garden in Giza.

The road between Cairo and the Pyramids was paved using stones in 1869, on the occasion of Queen Eugenie s visit to the Pyramids, celebrating the inauguration of the Suez Canal.

Salient of the palaces built by Khedive Ismail are Abdeen Palace, Giza Palace, Boulak-el-Dakrour Palace, Al Geizira Palace, Al Quba Palace, Helwan Palace, Ismailia Palace, and Al Za afaran Palace in Abaseya.

To link Al Geizira to Cairo, Kasr-el-Nil bridge was built by the French company Vive Lille , and Al-Gala bridge was built by a British company in 1872. Khedive Ismail was the first to introduce kindling gas into Egypt, paid special attention to Helwan suburb, where he built a magnificent palace for his mother in 1837, and linked Helwan to Cairo by a railroad. He also built houses and palaces there.

Gardens were on top of Khedive Ismail s interests, so, he built Al Orman garden. He also built the Islamic Museum then the Egyptian Museum in Al Tahrir Square in 1902, in addition to building the Opera House in 1869, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Suez Canal. The Khedive assigned the famous musician Verdi with composing A ida Opera written by Mariette Pasha, and was first performed in Cairo on December 24th, 1871.

If we talk about the architectural style distinguishing Down Town, we should go back to a specific era, namely that of Khedive Ismail.

In his reign, grand palaces, and chic and beautiful European style buildings were built, and outstanding squares were designed. Hence, Down Town still maintains such unique touches up till now.

During that far period, Khedive Ismail asked the famous French architect Hothman , who had just finished executing a distinguished architectural design in Paris, -the capital of light and beauty-, to design a similar architectural project in Cairo, which was implemented accurately and perfectly by the Egyptian architect Ali Mubarak. That was at the end of the 18th century.

The outcome was Cairo s Down Town of the beautiful squares: Mustafa Kamel, Emad el Din, the Opera House and Al Azbakeya gardens.

The architectural style characterizing down town is called the Rococo style. The word simply means, different inharmonious architectural styles. In that era, which was known as the Renaissance , Europe witnessed an unprecedented unique architectural revival, followed by a revolution against the known old traditional architecture and classic styles. Hence, the new architectural style appeared and was called Rococo. It had no one particular style.

It combined several different architectural styles and patterns. Thus, the French architects participated in constructing the Down Town buildings of the beautiful European style, assisted by the Italian contractors and designers.

The Khedive managed, at the same time, to transfer the European culture with its specificities to us. Modern Cairo became much similar to Paris, Rome, Greece and Madrid. A big economic openness took place at that time, and foreigners competed to construct buildings in Suliman Pasha, Emad eldin and Clote Bey streets. The buildings constructed at that time were known as the The Khedivial Buildings . They were of classic style of the Rococo and were, full of columns and decorations.

There are also the Fatimid, Mameluke and Ottoman architecture, standing side by side with the European architecture.

We see a unique variety of architectural styles in Down Town. Therefore, we feel such unique characteristic and distinguishing atmosphere.

Khedive Ismail was fascinated at that time by the fine European architecture, and, he wanted to make Cairo as a copy of Paris with all its distinguishing beautiful features. Down Town is a revolution in the old traditional architecture, and its decorations, columns and cornices represented a new distinctive style.

Box 1 (page 25):

The French architect Hothman , made use of his experience in building Paris to build modern Cairo. And Engineer Ali Mubarak accurately executed the design perfectly.

Box 2 (page 25): Grand Palaces and chic European style buildings, as well as beautiful old-fashioned buildings were constructed. Outstanding squares were designed, so as to preserve Down Town until today.

Box 3 (page 26): Clote Bey Street is one of the beautiful classic style streets in Egypt.

Box 4 (page 26): Foreigners competed in constructing buildings in Suliman Pasha, Emad ElDin and Clote Bey Streets, where Khedival buildings were constructed.

Box 5 ( page 27): Behlr Street is distinguished by classic-style columns that are, much similar to those of Rome and Paris.

Box 6 (page 27): Rococo is the architectural style of Down Town, which represents the Renaissance age of Europe.