Travelog: East vs. West Cairo

The west side of Cairo (Giza) is very different from the east side. I'm glad I got to spend a week in each place to see the difference.

East (Cairo governorate)

The Cairo governorate reminds me of New York City with its high-rise apartments and gridlock traffic. There are street vendors everywhere, and corner shops that remind me of "bodegas." 

Some older architecture remains among the newer highrises

I spent a lot of time in this traffic

Crossing the Nile

These are "unlicensed" developments

These vendors are everywhere with their cases of Fanta

A beautiful mosaic entryway

Crossing the Nile

A shaded street in a quieter neighborhood

West (Giza governorate)

Giza is a different story. It reminds me of Las Vegas. There are palm trees and new developments springing up everywhere. You see the large cranes building malls, resorts, hotel and office complexes - separated by stretches of desert. Driving around here is more like navigating the freeways around Las Angeles. The new housing developments look a lot like the clay tile and stucco apartment complexes that I've seen in Orlando.

You can orient yourself by seeing the tops of the Great Pyramids on the horizon. They are visible from all angles. I see them from my hotel window, and pass by them on my way to work.

Pan view from my balcony, at the Hilton, Dreamland

Mall of Arabia

Melon stacking level: Expert

Cleverly disguised cell phone tower

View from a local friends balcony in their apartment complex

This could be SoCal, right?

Pyramids on the horizon

Pyramids again

A story about art, obsession, and crazy

I worked a 9-5 type of job in downtown Pittsburgh for several years, early 1990s until about 2007. As I was commuting to and from my work and walking the city streets, I noticed an unusual plaque that was embedded in the middle of the street. I saw it everyday, walked over it, and wondered what it was and what it meant, but didn't think about it too much until many years later, when I saw it again -  in St. Louis. Now it really had me thinking, so I snapped a photo of it and uploaded it to the interwebs for all to see. One of my internet acquaintances recognized it and gave it a name - Toynbee tile. Mystery solved, well sort of. I just stumbled on this documentary - Resurrect Dead - which searches for the identity of the mysterious "tiler," and they do narrow it down, but....no spoilers here. It was just a provocative story, and I feel in some small way like a firsthand witness to it.

There were hundreds of these Toynbee tiles in major cities all over the Northeast, and amazingly, in South America. However, many of them are paved over, and some have even been stolen - as in cut right out from the street - because they now have a perceived value as art. There is no effort to protect or preserve them. In Chicago, they were routinely removed like any other graffitti. So the tiles are disappearing and soon will be gone forever. There is a lesson in impermanence here. Otherwise, one might say that it was a brilliant PR campaign.

Addendum: Found the photos I took of the ones I saw in St. Louis, which aren't there anymore (I don't think).