As usual,
The Scout, had done his homework on hotels prior to our trip to Cairo, Egypt. We were headed to the
Cairo Marriott and Omar Khayyam Casino, in the Zamelek neighborhood of this sprawling city.
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| Cairo Marriott Hotel entry |
What I hadn’t realized until our driver pulled into the guarded and gated entry (as most public places are these days in Cairo) that it wasn’t ‘just a Marriott’, on this island in the middle of the Nile River, it was a Palace!
Quite literally, we’d arrived at the146-year-old former
Palace Al Gezirah, the centerpiece of this five-star hotel.
While I didn’t know about the palace prior to our stay, we were so taken with it while there that I've set out to learn more about its history . . .
The palace was built at the direction of Isma’il Pasha,(often referred to as Isma’il the Magnificent), who served at Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 until 1879 – its purpose was to be a guest palace for the Suez Canal inaugural celebrations in 1869.
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| Imagine the guests who've walked these stairs |
The neoclassical building, (a popular architectural style throughout Europe at the time), was designed by Austrian architect Julius Franz. German architect Carl von Diebitsch, was responsible for the ornate interior design.
During our near week-long stay earlier this month we had ample access and opportunity to explore the former palace as its grand rooms are used for receptions, meetings and events and some have been converted to restaurants and lounges. The casino is housed there as well.
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| Imagine making your entry via this hallway |
It was easy to let our imaginations take flight when walking the long elaborate hallways – all the while wishing that the walls could talk. So many tales they could tell of its guests; Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, among them.
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| One of the meeting/reception rooms |
And then there were the events like Khedive Isma’il’s son’s wedding which reportedly lasted 40 days.
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| Setting up for a dinner |
The building itself has undergone a number of changes as it transformed from palace to a hotel. For instance, back in 1879 when it was known as the Gizirah Palace, it was seized by the state for outstanding debts and subsequently acquired by the Egyptian Hotels Company.
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| Another palace room |
Between 1894 and 1903 an additional 400 hotel rooms were added, along with electric lighting.
During the British occupation of Cairo (from 1914 – 1918) the palace served as a hospital and then was returned to the Egyptian Hotels Company. The following year it was sold to a Syrian landlord who’d settled in Cairo. Habib Lotfallah, the purchaser, paid 140,000 Egyptian pounds. For 40 years it was known as
Palais Lotfallah.
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| One of the hotel restaurants located in the Palace |
In 1961 under President Gamel Abdel Nasser, the palace was nationalized and became the
Omar Khayyam Hotel. In the 1970’s Marriott International took over management of the hotel, renovating the palace, and building two towers that flank it. The resulting compound is more than 1,000 guest rooms, numerous restaurants and bars.
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| The Palace was breathtaking from ceiling to floor |
While exploring the hotel was so interesting that we could have spent hours there, we had 'a bit more' history waiting for us in town and surrounding areas. . .you know, places like the pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza. . .just to name a few. We’ll take you with us as we set off exploring some of those in our next post. We also plan to backtrack a bit and show you around other places in the Middle East that we visited as part of our spring cruise.
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| Hotel grounds and our room |
For those of you not ‘into’ history or palaces, let us assure you the hotel has modern guest rooms and beautiful grounds. While we used accumulated Marriott loyalty reward points for our stay, room rates for rooms with view decks are currently about $150US per night, double occupancy on booking.com. (An incredible deal, as we paid that to stay at a Fairfield Inn in Central Washington State last summer.)
Happy New Year to you and yours ~ hope your 2016 is filled with travel adventures whether taken from your armchair or in real time! And as always, thanks for the time you spent with us today!
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