Vintage Cairo from the BnF

Ryder Kouba, a colleague working at AUC, recently pointed me to the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. I wish I had known about it when I was putting together Grand Hotels. It has some excellent vintage images of Cairo and Egypt that I would have loved to have included in the book. Malish, maybe if we do a second, updated edition. Meanwhile, see if you can identify the places below – captions at the end.

[Le_Caire_Carrefour_des_rues_[...]_btv1b531201745_2

[Le_Caire_Entrée_de_l'hôtel_[...]_btv1b53120164r_2

[Le_Caire_Entrée_du_pont_[...]_btv1b53120186g_2

[Le_Caire_Heliopolis_Palace_Hotel_[...]_btv1b531202053_2

[Le_Caire_Hôtel_Shepheard's]___[...]_btv1b53120143g_2

[Le_Caire_Place_Ataba]___[...]Mosseri_Richard_btv1b531201065_2

[Le_Caire_Place_Bab_el_[...]Sabongi_M_btv1b53120137v_2

[Le_Caire_Place_de_l'Opéra]_[...]_btv1b531201656_2

[Le_Caire_Place_Soliman-Pasha_hôtel_[...]_btv1b531201639_2

[Le_Caire_Rue_el-Maghrabi_l'hôtel_[...]_btv1b53120168j_2

[Le_Caire_Rue_Kamel_devant_[...]_btv1b531201421_2

[Le_Caire_Rue_Soliman-Pasha_depuis_[...]_btv1b53120170c_2

[Le_Caire_Vue_en_enfilade_[...]_btv1b53120184k_2

The pics are Emad ed-Din Street; the main entrance of the Savoy Hotel on Qasr el-Nil Street; Boulaq Bridge, looking toward Zamalek, since replaced by the 26th of July Flyover; the Heliopolis Palace Hotel under construction (now the presidential palace); Shepheard’s Hotel, burned down in 1952; Ataba Square, looking west; Bab al-Hadid Station, now Ramses Square; Opera Square; Rondpont Suleiman Pasha, now Midan Talaat Harb, dominated by the Savoy Hotel; the Hotel d’ Angleterre, next to the Hashamayim synagogue on what’s now Adly Street; Shepheard’s street-side terrace; rue Suleiman Pasha, now Talaat Harb; the Boulaq bridge.

1 Comment

Filed under Grand hotels, Hotels then and now, Lost Egypt, Shepheard's

One Response to Vintage Cairo from the BnF

  1. Janne Sterner

    Is there anyone who knows anything about “New Khedivian Hotel”? Placed at the same site as Hotel Victoria today on al-Gumhuriyah street.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *