Egypt
Thanks to Tony Marson for forwarding this article, which offers a nostalgic look at the Cecil Hotel, which has been reclaimed by its former owners.
See the above page for the full story.
- New Book: Grand Hotels Of Egypt
AUC Press Grand Hotels of Egypt In the Golden Age of Travel By Andrew Humphreys A colorfully illustrated celebration of Egypt’s classic era of touring From the earliest resthouses serving travelers on the Overland Route between Britain and Bombay to...
- Luxor - Out With The New And In With The Old
The National News (Simon Mars) Samir Farag wants to reclaim the glories of ancient Luxor, even if it means demolishing a village or two. Will the governor’s dreams of tourism dollars save the city or destroy it? It’s the first week of December and...
- Travel: Rolling Back The Centuries In Egypt's Second City
Chicago Tribune (Stephen Franklin) Travel article about some of the more recent aspects of Alexandria's past: As the old hotel elevator rumbles upward, its antiquarian wood and brass cage carries me backward. Back to the 1930s when the Cecil Hotel—staring...
- Mohamed Ali Palace In Greece Reopened
State Information Service Egypt and Greece are to celebrate on October 23-24 the reopening of Mohamed Ali Pasha ruler of Egypt's palace in the Greek city of Kavala after it has been restored and renewed and turned into a Hotel and tourist attraction....
- A Desert Taj Mahal
Al Ahram Weekly By Samir Raafat An article about the accessibility of some of Egypt's wonderful buildings, using the the Heliopolois Palace Hotel, dating 1908-10, as a case study. Heliopolis Palace Hotel turned into the Federation of Arab Republic's...
Egypt
50-year saga to reclaim Egypt's 'Cecil Hotel'
Thanks to Tony Marson for forwarding this article, which offers a nostalgic look at the Cecil Hotel, which has been reclaimed by its former owners.
It took exactly half-a-century for the Metzger family to reclaim ownership of the Cecil Hotel, the illustrious palace overlooking Egypt's Mediterranean and immortalized in Lawrence Durrell's classic, The Alexandria Quartet. "I can't believe it, after all these years of lost hope," said Patricia Metzger, the British daughter-in-law to Albert Metzger who owned the Cecil and was kicked out of Egypt in 1957 "with only two suitcases." Albert Metzger came from a Jewish family in Alsace-Lorraine in eastern France. Born in Egypt, he was given one week by authorities to leave the hotel that his father founded in 1929 . . . .Looking toward the Mediterranean Sea, the Cecil palace, which once attracted Alexandria's rich cosmopolitan elite, was nationalized by late president Gamal Abdel Nasser after Egypt's nationalist revolution in 1952. It is now an 86-room four-star hotel run by French company Accor. After marathon negotiations, an agreement was signed between the Egyptian government and the heirs to the once glistening palace, which in its heyday hosted the likes of Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill, British writer Lawrence Durrell, and the infamous Al Capone.
See the above page for the full story.
- New Book: Grand Hotels Of Egypt
AUC Press Grand Hotels of Egypt In the Golden Age of Travel By Andrew Humphreys A colorfully illustrated celebration of Egypt’s classic era of touring From the earliest resthouses serving travelers on the Overland Route between Britain and Bombay to...
- Luxor - Out With The New And In With The Old
The National News (Simon Mars) Samir Farag wants to reclaim the glories of ancient Luxor, even if it means demolishing a village or two. Will the governor’s dreams of tourism dollars save the city or destroy it? It’s the first week of December and...
- Travel: Rolling Back The Centuries In Egypt's Second City
Chicago Tribune (Stephen Franklin) Travel article about some of the more recent aspects of Alexandria's past: As the old hotel elevator rumbles upward, its antiquarian wood and brass cage carries me backward. Back to the 1930s when the Cecil Hotel—staring...
- Mohamed Ali Palace In Greece Reopened
State Information Service Egypt and Greece are to celebrate on October 23-24 the reopening of Mohamed Ali Pasha ruler of Egypt's palace in the Greek city of Kavala after it has been restored and renewed and turned into a Hotel and tourist attraction....
- A Desert Taj Mahal
Al Ahram Weekly By Samir Raafat An article about the accessibility of some of Egypt's wonderful buildings, using the the Heliopolois Palace Hotel, dating 1908-10, as a case study. Heliopolis Palace Hotel turned into the Federation of Arab Republic's...