Abdeen Palace & Downtown Cairo.

During the British invasion period, a lot of different cultures and nationalities
flooded into the Egyptian land. A result of this cultural diffusion was the cultural
diversity of the Cairo downtown area. As we were walking through the streets we
saw how the variety of architecture reflected the people and families who built them.
Downtown Cairo is full of buildings built by Welsh, French and British families who
moved to Cairo during a time when the whole world was suffering and Egypt was
considered an escape from all the chaos. There are also a lot of cafs that used to be
the hang out spot for all foreigners. These cafs are no longer as successful as they
were because they are not known by many Egyptians nowadays; however, they still
have the same unique quality. One of the most famous cafs is After Eight where
people used to go hear the different underground bands perform jazz and heavy
metal music. These two genres were very different but they aimed at attracting an
audience from different ages. A very unique building that still stands in Downtown
Cairo is the Auto-club (Nady Al Sayyarat). Nady Al Sayyarat used to be a place
where all car owners (a minority) went to spend their time. This building was
concidered a culture club for the elite as it had restaurants, cafs and other services
for the car-owning minority in Egypt. Downtown Cairo is also a major place for
Egypt because it includes important and significant buildings such as the stock
exchange, the Central Bank, the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Egypt's main radio station
which included Greek, German, French, English and most importantly Arabic
broadcasts. The Abdeen Palace was also one of the most important locations as it
was the home of Egypt's royal family. The architecture of the palace signified power
and control. Entry into the palace these days costs 200 EGP per person.