Downtown Cairo

This central district, sometimes called Khedivial Cairo, was laid out in the late nineteenth century by the ruler Ismail Pasha in imitation of the grand boulevards of Paris. Its wide streets, roundabouts and ornate apartment blocks in European styles once formed the fashionable heart of the modern city. Historic cinemas, cafes, department stores and passages survive amid the bustle, and ongoing restoration has revived some of the belle-époque facades.