Cairo, Egypt:
Holding on to glory

Cairo, with a population of over 23 million, is (for the time being) Africa's largest metropolis, crossed by the mighty Nile and steeped in thousands of years of history. Losing oneself here means travelling through time, being immersed in an incalculable heritage – from the Pyramids of Giza to the Mohammed Ali Mosque, via a UNESCO-listed medina, whilst paying homage to the immutable Sphinx. The Mother of the World, in Arabic (Oum el Dounia), is expanding relentlessly in an urban semi-chaos that is both seductive and unsettling. Tourism is the mainstay of the Egyptian economy (13% of GDP). As a result, grand hotels and riverboat restaurants rub shoulders with saturated urban areas, plagued by pollution, traffic jams and glaring inequalities. To ease the pressure, the state has launched the construction of a new capital city rising out of the desert: a pharaonic project intended to embody modernity, but fuelled by colossal debt (and the corruption that goes with it). Egypt is overpopulated, fragile and dependent. What was once the heart of the Arab world seems to have been pushed to the sidelines since the emergence of the Gulf powers. Cairo, however, is holding on to its fading glory. The Grand Egyptian Museum was due to be officially inaugurated with great pomp and ceremony at the end of June. As if symbolic of the times, the war in the Middle East, the situation in Gaza and the clash between Israel and Iran ultimately led to the postponement of this moment...