Cairo! The craziest city ever seen

I’ve been traveling for a long time and have seen many places. I admit that I haven’t been to India where Cairo might find a counterpart. However, in terms of crowded cities, I’ve been through a few, culminating in those in China with over 25 million people. Shanghai or Beijing, for example, have a special pedestrian police. They direct tens of thousands of pedestrians in orderly columns. Here, there’s a lot of police too, but not to maintain order, just to closely and discreetly monitor things.

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, meaning “the victorious,” is built on the Nile, near its delta, and has around 20 million inhabitants. I don’t think anyone can conduct a census here; it would be pointless. So, 20 million inhabitants +/- (mostly plus) a few million. The “Mother of the World,” the most crowded city in Africa, the heart of Egypt with a life that has no beginning or end in the 24 hours of a day.

You won’t read about “tourist attractions” and how beautiful Cairo is, but rather about how I saw the city in the short time there. Beautiful, complicated, noisy, crowded, diverse, intensely vibrant. And at the end, you’ll find a photo gallery.

Excursion to Cairo from Sharm El Sheikh

From Sharm to Cairo, it’s about 500 km, all through the desert, except for the stretch of road after the Suez Canal. But even that is not lush with greenery, just more populated. The journey starts late at night; buses and minibusses gather in the city center and depart in a convoy with police at the front and back. You’re checked on the bus by the guide for an Egyptian visa because, while you don’t need a visa for Sharm El Sheikh, you do need one for Cairo. You can get it at the airport upon arrival for $25 or from the agency for $30-35. But it’s mandatory for this trip.

The journey is divided in two. Somewhere in the middle, there’s a solitary stop where you can use the restroom, grab a quick bite, or have tea or coffee. Don’t look for beer or anything with alcohol because they don’t have it. In the bus, we had power outlets for phones and a restroom, so don’t stress about that. The stop might just be to stretch your legs. Then you cross the Suez Canal through the Ahmed Hamdi tunnel, a narrow tunnel in a practically militarized zone, and the landscape gradually changes. You start seeing lights, houses, people, cars. And then, on a massive highway with 9 lanes per direction, you make a glorious entrance into the city that wakes up in the morning.

Cairo!

The size and the way it’s built are shocking. Cairo is old. Very old. Thousands of years are behind it, and the last 200-300 years are visible in the buildings. Haphazardly! There are extremely few places that have uniformity. Towards the outskirts, you can see residential areas with a head and a tail, but as you progress into the city, everything becomes a tangle of elevated roads passing by half-demolished blocks, entire neighborhoods with buildings almost touching each other, and some wide boulevards insufficient for the number of parked cars or those in traffic. I’m absolutely sure there’s no urban planning. Everyone builds whatever they want, and if you’re unlucky, the state demolishes half of it because a street will pass through there. Blocks that from afar seem connected, with dozens of them, separated only by 1-2 meters, effectively look like a single building. Some with only red brick walls, others seem to be crookedly built, tall, elegant, hideously ugly. Many unfinished, without windows, seem abandoned and are like ghosts between a modern glass building and an art nouveau one. And I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s dirty. It’s disorderly! It’s as if everyone has done and continues to do whatever they want.

Every piece of land is used. I remember the discussions near Baneasa Bridge about noise. Here, they demolished half of the blocks to expand the elevated highway! And there are countless bridges. I don’t know if they’ve also gone down, like building tunnels, but above, they’ve already reached 3-4 layers in some parts. If you don’t know the way, it’s a nightmare for any driver. Plus, there are so many cars. Of all kinds. And on the streets, you find everything from carts, scooters, and bicycles to people riding horses. And on scooters, as well as literally on horses. Anything that can take you from one place to another is used.

Cairo is full of police. However, they are the most relaxed I’ve ever seen. They stay in their places, some in cars, others simply on street corners, observing. They are omnipresent, at almost every street corner, like small mafia bosses, condescendingly accepting all sorts of characters who consistently come to show off, as if they’ve come to kiss the ring on their finger. I don’t know how far this tolerance goes. It seems like accepted chaos but carefully monitored. How much can the rope be stretched? They probably know exactly. I didn’t get to see.

Public transportation here, from what I’ve seen, is mostly done with some minibuses. Old, worn out, and many! Crowded or resting in groups of 3-4. However, many people walk. And there are many people in Cairo. Enormously many. They go or come from somewhere without any order. They cross highways through the middle or regular roads without even looking. A terrible chaos where you have to know for sure which way to go to be able to keep it. Here, you have to adapt. Let the city take you, never fight it. Because the locals are extremely relaxed. They probably don’t even see the crowds or the mess. That’s the solution, and it’s for you too. Let yourself be carried away.

The Pyramids are, obviously, the central point for tourists in Cairo. They are somewhat integrated into the city, somewhere on its outskirts, after passing through some peripheral neighborhoods where you can even see people’s homes. This is the epicenter of the world! If in the city, there are locals, here are tourists from all over the world. Bus after bus squeezes through narrow and crowded streets to reach the pyramid complex. Because you enter through large gates, and the place is huge.

Here are the “little sharks.” Children who sell you something. Anything. From a camel ride to small toys or souvenirs. They can smell you from a mile away that you’re a foreigner; most of the time, they even know where you’re from. And bam! Will you buy? But it’s an aggression without aggression. I don’t know how to express it… if they see that you’re saying NO, they skillfully ignore you. But there are many, and you’d say they are almost organized in small gangs. From 2-3 years old to 12-13.

I repeat, even if it might become boring. It is the most crowded city I have ever been to. And I’ve seen New York, Beijing, Shanghai. Just that there are rules there. There’s an order that, once you understand, makes it extremely easy. Here, it seems like there are no rules. In traffic, in construction, in nothing. The exception is tourist places where everything is precise, extremely well-organized, and safe. Otherwise… may God be with you.

I would like to go and stay for a week. I think I would get used to everything. It’s hard until you perceive the pulse. Then you adapt. I don’t know if I’ll ever go again, but if I do, I’ll be prepared. Because I knew what to expect, but reality exceeded my expectations by far!